A Whole New Ballgame

The other day, at school, there was a substitute teacher in our kindergarten classroom. I happened to be in the classroom when a little kindergarten girl asked me if I could put a hair clip into her hair. I had no idea how to do this. I’d never done this before. I balked. I passed the job along to the classroom’s associate.

I am about to be in unchartered territory. Growing up, the house was always dominated by males. My Mom accommodated us, it wasn’t the other way around. Our house is going to be a 50-50 split. I can’t imagine that the living room and the play room remain filled with strictly sports equipment and superheroes. Change is on the horizon.

That being said, I am excited about having a little girl. I’m really excited, actually, and as I think about this more in-depth while I am writing, I get even more excited…goosebumps. Having a little girl will bring a whole different set of experiences that I will be able to have with her that a father and son are not able to share.

Some of the experiences that I am looking forward to more than others include:

• Showing her an expectation for how men should treat women
• Once she finds a man to marry that loves her and treats her how she deserves to be treated, walking her down the aisle and giving her hand away to marriage
• Believe it or not, I can’t wait to take her to a father-daughter dance
• Taking her to downtown Chicago to buy her her own American Girl doll
• Learning about new sports such as volleyball, women’s basketball, softball, etc. (I think my next post will be dedicated to sharing my passion for sports with my daughter)

I wanted our first child to be a boy. I was indifferent in regards to the gender of our second child. Since we found out that we'd be having a girl, I've had several people tell me how having both a daughter and a son is the perfect combination. The more that I think about that concept and the different experiences that a parent will be able to have with both his/her daughter and son, the more in-line my thinking becomes. 

Come June I'll have a little girl. For the rest of my life I'll have a little girl.

Team Gleason - No White Flags

"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day."

The above quote is from Jimmy V's infamous ESPY's speech given just months before cancer took his life. I could listen to that speech every morning, and it would fire me up every time.

I was moved to tears last fall. Not just teary eyed, but actual crying. I was watching ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown when they previewed a segment featuring my all-time favorite band, Pearl Jam, that caught my attention.

The beauty of this post is that I don't have to write much. Watch the clip. It speaks volumes.

Nothing is promised to anyone. Someone is going to tell your story. I want to be the narrator of my story.

This blog is for my children. I love them so much.

Time is Running Out

I've been putting this off for a long time now. The new baby is less than five months from being here!

It was last fall. Amy had told me that she was...we were pregnant. I was training for my half-marathon, and therefore going on long runs where I have nothing but time to reflect and think. It was during a run that went into double digit miles where I had almost an epiphany of all of these briliant ideas worth writing about. As soon as I got home, I grabbed some paper and a pen and started to get my thoughts onto paper. I'm working "late" tonight...translate to I have a meeting later, and I don't want to spend the gas money and/or time to drive home only to turn around to come back...and we just found out the new baby's gender (it's a girl!)...so now seems like an opportune time to begin crafting some of these thoughts into writing worth publishing.

Throughout Ryne's arrival into our world I devoted the time to write about it. I don't think that it is justifiable for our second child not to get that same treatment. Yeah, I'm busier now than I was while Amy was pregnant with Ryne, but busy is a horrible excuse. I was busy then. Everyone is busy. We make time for what we value. I value this baby's arrival. I'm still no good at telling people how I feel so I'm going to write about it. I think that it is important. I'm making time.

I just mentioned that I'm still not very good at telling people how I feel. Expressing myself through this avenue is much more comfortable for me. Up until yesterday, prior to finding out the new baby's gender, the pregnancy still didn't feel very real to me. Nothing had changed for me. That feels different now that we know that we are expecting a girl. All of a sudden it feels real. Let me spell this out for you, I am excited about this addition to our family!

Earlier today I sent Amy a Tweet talking about a father/daughter dance that was being advertised in the corridor. She mentioned that she was excited to see 'a whole new me.' This is unchartered territory for me; nonetheless, I'm excited. I have no idea what to expect; however, I can't wait to experience all of it.

There are a couple of things that I can say with certainty at this point in time upon the new baby's arrival: this baby will be perfect, she will be loved, and I'm going to need more coffee.