Play List for Ryne

It has been a little while since I've last blogged. There is no reason for the hiatus other than the fact that I've just been keeping busy with three of my favorite things: family, sports, and work. Not a lot is new; Ryne is now over three months old, he keeps growing and growing, he consistently sleeps through the night, he seems to like his babysitter a lot (as do his Mom and Dad), sometimes he will roll from his stomach to his back, he had his little heart broken when his Bears lost in the NFC Championship, everyone seems to think that he is getting teeth, he is able to grip one of his little balls, he is talking (although the language sounds foreign)...maybe a lot is new!

Recently Ryne was given an iPod full of "baby" songs. We've been listening to it with him, and he seems to love it! This blog entry is going to be about one of my other favorite things (sarcasm), music.








I've never played an instrument, and I've never enjoyed singing. I used to listen to a lot of music, but that has recently been replaced by a preference of sports talk radio. I do, however, love making play lists that have a central theme. Earlier today I made a play list re. fatherhood/parenthood that I'd like to tell you about...


Just the Two of Us - Will Smith

• It's not just the two of us (we have three), but the rest of the song sums up a lot of the feelings I have towards Ryne. And Will Smith, however corny his songs are, is awesome.
  

I've Been Watching You - Rodney Atkins

• Because I hope that the chorus of this song is something is something that Ryne eventually does/says (minus the cowboy boots and camo pants!).
  

Anything Like Me - Brad Paisley

• While the lyrics of this song don't particularly describe me; I do wonder if Ryne will be anything like me.

It Won't Be Like this for Long - Darius Rucker

• I know this song is about a daughter, but it is my FAVORITE! Makes me appreciate soothing a crying baby, drinking cold coffee, running out of the house late for work most mornings, waking up in the middle of the night, etc. I'm sure there will come a time all to soon where Amy and me wish for these things/times to return.

The Best Day - George Strait

• Probably won't happen re. me taking him camping, but maybe he will say this about going to Kinnick Stadium, Wrigley Field, or some other place like that (fingers crossed!).

With Arms Wide Open - Creed

• Statement of clarification - I don't like Creed. However, the lyrics fit what I was looking for pretty well.

Forever Young - Bob Dylan

• The theme music from my favorite TV show, Parenthood.

Sweet Child O Mine - Guns N Roses

• It is about a girl so it isn't a perfect match, but GNR is one of my first favorite bands and I've always liked this song.

I Don't Want to Miss a Thing - Aerosmith

• The theme song from a great movie, Armageddon, I always thought it was about the love between a man and a woman; maybe it is, but the lyrics seem to fit the relationship of a parent and a child as well.

There Goes My Life - Kenny Chesney

• My third daughter song (sorry), and the first half of the song doesn't really describe the situation that Amy and me were in when we found out that Ryne was coming. However, the second half of the song is a better fit (although hopefully Ryne won't be going off to live in California anytime soon!).

Then They Do - Trace Adkins

• See "It Won't Be Like this for Long" and "There Goes My Life"

Tough Little Boys - Garry Allan

• I am fairly tough in re. to keeping my emotions in check, but I'm gonna bet that Ryne brings them out of me frequently.

Simple Man - Lynard Skynard

• One of my favorite songs period. As the song says, "All I want for you my son, is to be satisfied."

Beautiful Boy - John Lennon

• The title of the song pretty much describes Ryne to a tee. I wonder if John Lennon made a mistake by using the name Sean in his lyrics.

Original of the Species - U2

• Because there has never been another quite like Ryne.
  

Cats in the Cradle - Ugly Kid Joe

• This song is a reminder of how/what not to be (although it is a great song). I will always make time for Ryne regardless of what my career/job calls for.

December 27th – January 2nd – Best Week Ever/2010 – Best Year Ever

Last week was the best week of my life. Prior to today, I’d spent the last 12 days at home with Amy and Ryne. That is the longest that I’ve ever been able to stay at home with Ryne (I got five days at home after he was born before I had to go back to work).

Here are some of the things that we were able to do with Ryne over the break:

Celebrate our first Christmas together
Watching him smile with frequency
Mimicking me and sticking out his tongue
Learning to blow spit bubbles
Sit, listen, and focus for stretches were I would read him multiple (sometimes up to five) books at a time
Celebrate our first New Year’s Eve together – a nice little family dinner at Governor’s, and watching TV shows on DVD before falling asleep prior to midnight – it was the best New Year’s Eve I’ve had in a long time
Celebrate our first New Year’s Day together
Watch Ryne roll over for the first time

To someone without kids, this list probably looks lame. But it isn’t/wasn’t.

I knew that I would enjoy Ryne and love Ryne, but I never imagined enjoying him so much and loving him so much.

The joy of having a child and watching that child are indescribable. I never understood it until Ryne was actually here on Earth. You can not find joy like this anywhere else, from anything else.

I love the life that I have. I am blessed with a great family, good friends, a good job, and good health. I could not think of any single way that my life could be made any better. I am so blessed, and so thankful for that.

2010 was a great year, probably the best year ever. I told Amy that recently, and she asked me why. I told her, “Ryne.” Ryne is the sole reason as to why my 2010 was so incredible. 2011 looks promising, though, too. Just imagine all of the change and growth Ryne will go through. I will get my first Father’s Day to celebrate. We will take our first family vacation together. Ryne will celebrate his first birthday. And I’m sure that there will be countless other things that will make 2011 unbelievable.

I’ll finish by recounting my version of dropping Ryne off for his first morning of daycare (which was today), which officially concluded my best week ever. Ryne woke up early, which was good because we were not rushed getting out the door, and because Amy and me got to play with him a tiny bit. I didn’t think that taking him to the sitters would be difficult, I really didn’t. However, as it got closer and closer to the time that I needed to leave the house, I started to move a little bit slower. I didn’t want to put him in the car seat. Unfortunately, I did because I had to (he needs diapers and formula – those things cost money – mom and dad have to work to get money). While at the sitters things went fine. He wasn’t fussy and he didn’t cry (he dealt with this much better than his mom and dad did). After talking with his sitter for a couple of minutes I had to tell him goodbye and that I loved him, and kissed him on the cheek. As I turned to leave I watched him watch me out the door with his big, wide-open eyes; it looked to me like he looked a little sad and a little scared, which made me A LOT sad. And while I didn’t cry, I did get choked up and was forced to fight back the tears. I never saw this coming. It was much harder than I’d expected. I can not think to imagine how much harder these things will get as he gets older…I don’t want to imagine them; I’d kind of like for time to just stand still.

Hawkeye Memories

The 500 word essay that I submited to Hawkeyesports.com regarding Hawkeye memories in an attempt to win tickets to Iowa football and/or basketball games...if I win, I'll let you know!

I love sports. Football is my favorite. The Iowa Hawkeyes are my favorite team. This has been the case for as long as I can remember. I grew up east of Iowa City, in the same hometown of former Hawkeye great Marv Cook. My parents are both University of Iowa alums. I would usually get to go to one Hawkeyes game each season as a child, but I always watched them on TV. Nick Bell was the first player that I recall being my favorite, but other favorite Hawkeyes from my childhood included: Vernon Rollins, Damien Robinson, Sedrick Shaw, Tavian Banks, Bashir Yamini, Jerry Montgomery, and Fred Barr before my age equaled that of the players on the roster.

I was fortunate to be an undergraduate at the University of Iowa while Kirk Ferentz was re-establishing Iowa as a regular Big Ten contender. I had season tickets and I never missed a home game. Actually, my fondest memories of college took place while attending Iowa football games on the road in places like Minneapolis, Madison, Champaign, Miami, and Orlando, but those memories are longer than 500 words would allow. After graduation I moved to Davenport and gave up my season tickets as I became a graduate student taking Saturday class. Nonetheless, I still followed the Hawkeyes. My wife and I would travel to Iowa City for a handful of games each fall, and I would watch the rest on TV. Even when occupied by class, during games I would receive play-by-play text messages keeping me updated.

This year, however, I was done with graduate school. My wife and I purchased season tickets. Expectations for the season were the highest they’d been in my adulthood. Not only was 2010 going to be great because Iowa was going to contend for the Rose Bowl, but it was going to be great because my wife and I were expecting our first child on October 13th! The pregnancy was going well; my wife was a trooper going to the Iowa State, Ball State (staying through the rain), and Penn State games with me. After the Penn State game, I thought that I was in the clear! There were 20 days until Iowa’s next home game, and surely our son would be born prior to that. My son, knowing how much his Dad loved the Hawks was timing his entrance perfectly! Then the due date passed. The Michigan game came and went. My attendance at the Iowa/Wisconsin game was questionable. My wife agreed that if we were out of the hospital before Saturday, I could go to the game. We had Ryne on Thursday, the 21st. We were in the hospital on the 22nd, and we left around 10am on the 23rd. I decided to skip the game; I would be watching the Iowa/Wisconsin game with my family in our home. Unfortunately Iowa lost, but I’d never been in such a good mood after a loss due to the presence of my newly born son!

I'm not sure if I will win, but I'm pretty sure that I should win.

Christmas Movies

Like the song says Christmas, "it's the most wonderful time of the year!" Spending time with family, Christmas shopping, all of the lights (wish I could make some sort of connection to the Kanye West song that goes by this title, but there is unfortunately zero connection), the one time during the year when snow is tolerable, giving, the sending and receiving of Christmas cards with people that you haven’t found time to communicate with often enough, the decorations, the smells produced by Christmas trees and baking Christmas treats, the time off of work (sorry if this does not apply to you!), bowl season, the NFL playoffs starting to take shape, the Bulls back to playing on Christmas day, and wearing Christmas ties are amongst the many reasons why I love this time of the year. However, the intent of this entry is to elaborate on a recent Facebook status of mine, “My five favorite Christmas MOVIES,” because I LOVE staying in when it is cold outside and watching Christmas movies with my family (and a glass or two of red wine and/or dark beer).

Honorable Mention: Bad Santa, Elf, and Home Alone

5.) Family Stone: this is my guilty pleasure on the list. It is funny, it is serious, and it is sad. Like the late, great basketball coach Jimmy Valvano said, there are three things that you should do every day: think, laugh, and cry; this movie can bring you to all three of those things.

4.) Four Christmases: two reasons why I like this movie – 1) to a degree this is what Amy and I do each year, and 2) Vince Vaughn. Anything that Vince Vaughn says is funny due to his delivery. The best two parts of this movie: “Woman! Do your job and swaddle this baby!” This was all I knew about swaddling babies prior to Ryne. And, “I'm gonna vomit. I'm about to throw up. Oh, God. I'll get sick. I can't be here. Take it away from me. I'm sorry. I love you. You gotta get out of here. I can't breathe.”

3.) Die Hard (One & Two): one reason John McClane. He is the baddest fictional character ever who isn’t a superhero (second only to Batman). I remember seeing, and loving, Die Hard Two in the theaters on a rainy day when I was seven while vacationing to Lake Okoboji.

2.) It’s a Wonderful Life: classic. It really is a wonderful life for us all. Unfortunately, Clarence is not available to show all of us the little, subtle things that we do/have in our lives that are appreciated, enjoyable, and meaningful. However, when we slow down and take a step back to reflect, it is evident that our lives are meaningful to many others around us.

1.) National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation: this is the end goal. I want to go out with the family and cut down a tree from a tree farm. I want to host the family for Christmas (prerequisite: owning a larger home). I want to dress the house in lights that attract a crowd. I want to go sledding very fast down very big hills (though preferably not into traffic and/or Wal Mart parking lots). Through all of their faults and flaws, the Griswolds are a great family; a family that wouldn’t be horrible to model.

(Three favorite “Holiday” themed TV episodes/shows: A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Seinfeld – “The Strike” (which should be renamed to the Festivus episode))

Reading is FUNdamental

Before I begin...Ryne is now smiling from time to time!

There are MANY things that I hope Ryne will achieve/experience in his lifetime. First and foremost I want him to be happy and healthy. I would like for him to be well educated throughout his life, and well employed once he is an adult. Yes, I would like for him to be a world class athlete (or just an athlete for that matter), but that would just be icing on the cake; I honestly feel this way – Ryne could chose not to participate in athletics, and I would be fine with that. Although, hopefully he will at least choose to take an interest as a spectator of sports…

Anyways…I really hope that he becomes an avid reader. I love to read. Reading is enjoyable. Reading is relaxing. Reading is how you educate yourself. Reading is the sign of a life long learner. These days, life long learners are what we try to create in schools.

Prior to Ryne being born, I would read (usually) every night before going to bed for about half of an hour. I would (usually) finish about a book a month. I still read, it is just harder to find the time to read for long stretches of time.

I realize that I have many obligations as a parent while raising a child. Amongst the obligations, I feel obligated to model reading and I feel obligated to read to my child. I do read to Ryne, but I feel as though I should be reading to him more. It is hard to read to someone who is still too young to show too much reciprocal interest. However, he will sit and listen and stare at the pages if you catch him in the right mood; I LOVE to read to him when I can catch him in the right mood!

Ryne has a quite large book collection, considering he is still less than two months old. My favorite books to read to him are Where the Wild Things Are, The Giving Tree, and during Christmas season How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I can’t wait to steal a Griswold family tradition and begin reading The Night Before Christmas every Christmas Eve! I also enjoy reading the little cardboard books to him that contain facts about my favorite sports teams (it is NEVER too early to learn; Amy even usually learns a thing or two when I read these to Ryne).

Sometimes I will even read whatever it is that I am reading to Ryne. The fathering book that Amy gave me told me that babies liked to be read Sports Illustrated because of the colorful pictures (YES!) so I do that sometimes. On occasion, I will read him articles from the newspaper and the internet. When he was first born I was reading a book by John Wooden, and I read him the little anecdotes/life lessons that it contained.

Currently, (and this is kind of funny, to me) I am reading a book about the greatest team that I’ve ever seen – the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls. This was my favorite team ever (and during this particular year my favorite player was Dennis Rodman), I think that my family probably watched a majority of their 82 regular season plus playoff games! I regress, last night I read aloud a few of the chapters to Ryne. Unfortunately this is not a picture book, but I noticed that Ryne was staring intently at the cover. I kind of thought (hoped) that he was staring at the front cover as there is a collage of the different Bulls on that cover. However, it seemed he was staring at the back cover…a picture of Dennis Rodman…in drag. Oh well, I think it is kind of funny…but maybe I should stick with cardboard picture books.

Thanksgiving

I have written and then re-written this blog numerous times, as I am finding it quite difficult to construct. I want to write a blog that speaks of all that I am thankful for with this being Ryne’s first Thanksgiving, but this is complicated because I have so much to be thankful for…where do I begin?!

I started to think of all of the things that I am thankful for, and the list looks something like this: my wife, my son, my family, my in-laws, my friends, my good health, the good health of those that I care about, my education, my intelligence, my employment situation, the shelter over my family’s heads, the clothes on my family’s backs, the food in my family’s mouths, the opportunities that I’ve had to travel throughout the United States and even some abroad travels, and even though they don’t matter – all of the material things that I own and enjoy. The list is pretty long, and I’m sure that it could be longer if I continued to think about it. I’m not going to ramble on telling you about how/why I’m thankful for all of these things, but I do want to go into detail on a few of them. As the holidays approach, and the year begins to come to a close, this (2010) really has been one of the most accomplished, enjoyable, monumental, successful, insert other adjective here years of my life!

My wife – I am thankful for everything about her. I am thankful that we shared a class together during the second semester in 2004 at the University of Iowa. I am thankful that she was raised to be such a wonderful person by such wonderful parents. I am thankful that she is beautiful on the inside and out. I am thankful that she is such a nice person to everyone even when she doesn’t want to be. I am thankful that she is an educator/teacher because I believe that is such a meaningful vocation. I am thankful that she, sometimes, thinks my, strange, sense of humor is funny. I am thankful that she has taken an interest in my number one interest – sports. I am thankful that she is such a wonderful mother to our son.

My son – I am thankful for Ryne. I am thankful that he is healthy. I am thankful that he eats plenty and eats well. I am thankful that he is pretty good sleeper. I am thankful that he appears to be content with life at this point in time. I am thankful that he never gets uncontrollably upset. I am thankful that he is so handsome. I am thankful that he is made-up from half of my wife and half of me. I am thankful that I get to come home from work to him (and my wife) each day. I am thankful that he was born into a situation where he has many people that love him, and will probably never have to go without anything that he really needs.

My family – I am thankful that I never had to question whether or not I was loved. I am thankful that I never had to go without anything that I really needed (or wanted, actually). I am thankful that I was raised to become who I am (because I like me a whole lot!).

My education – I am thankful for being born into a family that placed a value on education. I am thankful that (for the most part) I got something out of my educational opportunities (minus maybe the four years from my senior year of high school through the first three years of my undergraduate degree). I am thankful that I undertook the work necessary to complete my master’s degree when I did; even though it was not easy, and I could have easily found more enjoyable things to do with my money and time.

My employment situation – I am thankful for having a job. I am thankful for having a job that allows me to make a difference. I am thankful for enjoying my job. I am thankful for having a boss that I admire and enjoy working for. I am thankful for enjoying the school’s vacation schedule.

My new job has really made me more thankful than ever before for everything that I have in my life. A lot of the students in the building that I work in don’t have (on the surface) nearly the amount of things to be thankful for that I have. These students wear the same dirty, old, oversized or undersized clothes day-in and day-out. These students don’t get regular dental, health, or vision care. These students lack positive role models in their lives. These students rely on the unappetizing free breakfasts and free lunches that the school provides them with. These students don’t have their own space to go home to. Most of these students don’t have the traditional family structure in their lives. Many of these students have never traveled outside of the Quad Cities. These students come from homes where education is not valued, which will make school very difficult for them, which will make accomplishing things later in life nearly impossible for them. Going to work everyday and seeing these students everyday can be quite depressing. But that is one of the main reasons why it is so rewarding to work in education, and specifically to work in school like the one that I work in because you are able to help those in need.

And that is why I am so thankful this Thanksgiving. I can truly appreciate ALL that I have and be THANKFUL for ALL of it.

Baby's First Word and More!

Sorry this has taken me so long to write as it happened Sunday night…it is amazing how busy life has become with my new job, my family, and the heart of football season!

Sunday night, while laying in bed with my wife and my son, something miraculous happened! Ryne said his first word! (Okay, he probably didn’t actually say anything, but it was crystal clear to both Amy and myself as to what Ryne said). Without ever telling Amy what I heard, she told me what she heard, and what she told me was the exact same thing that I had heard. The word that we heard (sounding like Dr. Seuss) was…

…wait for it…wait for it…

…”Eric”

Yes, Ryne’s first (unofficial) spoken word on Sunday , November 14th at about 10:00pm was Eric (the name of his father). It made my night!

Speaking of making my night, do you want to know what one of my new favorite sounds is? It is when Ryne is put down on his little jungle mat for a moment by himself and you can hear him playing with/pushing/rolling his little ball that his a rattle inside of it. I love that he is taking the early initiative to play with the ball.

One final thing, for now, I love how much weight Ryne is gaining. As he approaches his one-month anniversary for entering the world, he has gained a pound and a half to total ten. He is a growing young boy (and that is going to cost his mom and dad), but you can’t coach/teach size! (I’m kidding about that, mostly kidding…) J