Post 10 (6/27/14)

This last week has been a busy one. Well, to be totally fair, every week is busy when you've got a three year old and a 9 month old. This last week though, maybe even the last two weeks, have seemed more hectic than usual. Right off the top of my head, I can think of the two biggest factors for this. 

One is totally self-imposed. Being a full time student, I'm coming up on finals week and this quarter has been a particularly work-heavy quarter. So, I've been playing catch up with school work and trying to prepare for finals next week. Like I said, this is all self-imposed stressors. The other factor, not so much. 

This second added business wasn't really self-imposed but it was totally expected. Bodie, the 9 month old, finally got mobile. He has totally mastered crawling, even though it still frustrates him that he can't get walk. This kid, as predicted by his mother and me, is ALL OVER THE PLACE. He cannot resist out entertainment center, that's definitely his favorite spot to explore. Of course, this is the number one non-kid-friendly spot in the house. With the Xbox and cable box, as well as a couple of baskets for odds and ends (e.g. Wallets, stamps, sunglasses, headphones, etc.), this whole area is both irrisistably interesting to a child and inexpressibly off limits from the parents perspective. So, in order to combat this kids non-stop movement, I've developed a little kiddie corral built up between the couch, my chair, and the coffee table.

Now, I know this is only going to hold him in for now. Eventually the kid will figure out how easily he can crawl under the table or push any of those items out of the way, but for now this is working really well. And as you can see, his big sister likes to sit in there with him. 

 

Post 9 (6/15/14: Father's Day)

Hey you guys. Just a quick post for Father's Day. Let me start by saying thank you to all the dads, daddies, fathers, papas, and all the other names we call those men that sacrifice so much to try and encourage us to be positive and upstanding additions to society.

Thank you to all those dads out there that strive, either consciously or unconsciously, to show their sons what it means to be a man. Showing your sons to be honorable, honest, and also showing them how to treat women, leading by example every day.

Thank you fathers for showing your tenderness and compassion to your daughters. Showing them what to expect from men and showing them how they should be treated, both in how you treat them directly and how you treat the women in their life, (In case you didn't know, that's what you do with every interaction with females. You show your little girl how a man should treat them).

WARNING!! Here's the part where I may get a little controversial or where my opinion may turn some of you away. Bear with me to through this whole thing because I need to say this. This is Father's Day. This is not Single Mother's Day, and Mother's Day is not Single Father's Day. I may be alone in this, but I really get frustrated, and almost irritated every time someone wishes a single dad, "Happy Mother's Day" and single moms, "Happy Father's Day." Now, I'm not taking away from what they do. It blows me away at the work single parents do and I don't know if I could ever do it myself. BUT, this does not mean they the other parent. A mother is a mother and a father is a father. A man can never, no matter how hard he tries, have the same impact on a child as a mother. A woman can never have the same impact on a child as a father. These are things that are only uniquely filled by a person of that specific sex. This is not to say that a mother or father cannot raise amazingly well balanced and fantastic people all on their own. They can and do all the time. All I'm saying is that we need to stop giving credit for fathering done by mothers and mothering done by fathers. Yes, they are pulling double duty and yes, they are doing amazing things, but this day (and Mothers Day) are singled out specifically for Fathers (or Mothers on Mothers Day).

In fact, single parents do such an amazing thing and work so amazingly hard that they shouldn't have to share a day that already exists. They should have a day all to themselves. Oh wait, check this out
----> Single Parent's Day. Let us all give single parents a standing ovation and as much honor as we can bestow on them on March 21st. A day set aside just for them. Let's let the mothers and fathers have Mother's Day and Father's Day to themselves and focus all of our awe and honor on those amazing heroes raising kids on their own, on their day.

I am in constant awe and have the utmost respect for any and all parents doing everything they can to raise those precious little ones to be good people. Do not misunderstand what I'm saying here. Single parents work harder than any other parent in the world. All I'm saying is let the holidays be for who they are specifically intended. Mother's Day is for all and only the moms. Father's Day is for the all and only the dads. And Single Parent's Day is for all those moms and dads doing it all on their own (and that blows my mind).

And, since my last posting was devoid of any cuteness from my house, here are the two amazing creatures that make me strive to be the best man I can be.

Post 8 (6/3/14)

Hey there all you awesome followers of this little thing I call a blog. How have you guys been? Things are pretty good here. We've had a great couple of weeks here in the Dakan house. It's been a while since a post from me so I'm not sure what all has happened between now and then, but I'll try to recap some highlights.

First, we had a great Memorial Day weekend. The weather was fantastic and we were able to have Nana and Uncle Aaron over (the in-laws) for BBQ and pool time. Bodie had his first time in our pool, that was entertaining. The kid LOVES water. His bath time is his favorite, to the point that he gets irate when you take him out. The pool though, that was another story. He wanted to love it but he just couldn't get past the fact that it wasn't warm :) Now, don't get me wrong, the temperature was really comfortable and not cold at all, but compared to his baths, it was much colder than he was used to.

Cali, as always, had a great time in the pool. She's still really timid about getting out and "swimming" and every time we get in the pool, we have to encourage her all over again. It's almost as if she undoes the progress we made last time and we start from scratch. Luckily, she's getting big enough for Uncle Aaron, Jess' brother, to be more comfortable actually playing with her. He got in the pool, and Cali adores him so when he asked her to jump in for him and he would catch her, she did it with minimal hesitation. I was inside working on homework at this time so missed a lot of that. By the time I got out and into the water she was all excited and having a blast. She was even jumping off of the higher bricks towards the back of our pool. She was very excited and proud and couldn't wait for daddy to get in and catch her.

So that sums up the weekend of Memorial Day. I'm really sorry I don't have much more for you guys, I know my posts have been few and far between lately. The truth is, I'm falling behind in my school work and really struggling to find the time and, even more, the motivation, to get caught up. That being said, I have 2 more weeks of school left and then I'll be able to refocus my efforts for you guys. Jess and I have discussed things and it looks like I'll be taking a little time off from school as well. So hopefully that will lead to more regular posts and more focused content for you guys.

The other thing I would like to quickly add, I know it's a little lame there are no pictures for this one. This is the only time that will happen. I really wanted to get a post up for you guys so you knew I wasn't abandoning you all.

Okay everyone, one last thing, thanks for reading this and following me. If you guys are truly interested, please spread the word and let others know. I'll ask again when my content gets a little more often and regular but I'm thinking it can't hurt to ask :)


-Shane

Post 7 (5/9/14)

Well, here we are on the first Friday back. By back, I mean back on our regular schedule, back to real life. For those that don't know, last week the wife and I got to spend 3 days in Disneyland, kid free with great friends. We had so much fun and we're very grateful for the vacation.

The traditional Disneyland picture :)

None of it would have been possible without the love and support if our amazing family (including the kid's awesome babysitter, Jazz). It was definitely a team effort though. Let me break it down for you guys.

Ok, not my actual flow chart here, but you get the idea

 Wednesday, after she got off work, my sister showed up to spend the night with the kids. Cali loved it. She finally got a sleep-over with her Auntie Ninja. Then, Thursday morning, bright and early, Jazz showed with her son to play with the kids for the day. She was relieved Thursday evening by Nana (my wife's mom). Nana stayed Thursday night on through till Saturday morning. Saturday, Pappy (my dad) came to relieve Nana until Grandma Coffee (my mom) got off work. Grandma coffee cam straight from work, let Pappy head on home, and stayed with the munchkins until we got home Sunday evening. Phew. Did you guys follow all that?

On the other end, mommy and daddy were tearing it up at Disneyland and California Adventure.

The Incredibles (all 4 of us)

This was my wife's second trip ever, and my first in 23 years. So, we were both rookies full of excitement, and a little trepidatious about being able to keep up with our whole party. You see, we were there to celebrate our close friends birthday.

Birthday Girl

Her and her husband are Annual Pass holders who go to Disneyland probably 4-5 times a year. They have it down to a science. They know hours, they've mastered the Fast Pass, and Josh, the birthday girl's husband, has a map of both parks in his head. This turned out to work out to our advantage. We spent day one and two following along. In the first day we rode probably every major ride we could have wanted to. 

Day two was the birthday girl's actual birthday and we hit up even more rides. We also ate at The Blue Bayou, the restaurant inside of the Pirates Of The Caribbean ride. Dinner was great, the company was even better, and the day was exhausting ;) 

Day three was all for mommy and daddy to fly solo as much as we wanted. Seeing as we got most of the major rides and attractions dine the first two days, we were able to take our time meandering around and riding the rides we had left in the list. This consisted mostly of kiddie rides in Fairytale Town. It was cute and we had a blast. We shared almost every meal so we could get more foods in. It was like we were dating again and we had a blast.

Lovin life

Needless to say, after day three at the parks, we were completely worn out. We were both walking funny by the time we got back to the hotel. I was so grateful that all we would be doing the next day was sitting in the car and driving. 

There wasn't much recovery time. Monday, after we were home for a night, I had to dive right back into school. I'm now taking three classes online and had to spend almost all of Monday and Tuesday upstairs in my office. My poor wife had to spend her last two days off managing the kids solo the whole time. Wednesday through Friday are my days with the kids, and I think the trip has helped us a

all out immensely. The kids have been really good, I've been getting a lot of laundry and cleaning done, and we've all been in good moods the whole time. 

It's so great it be back home. We missed the kids so much. Such an odd mixture of feelings to have. We equally loved being without the kiddoes and missed them so much it hurts, all at the same time. We will probably do it again, one more time, before Cali is old enough to go (we've talked long and hard about it and for us and our kids, 5 years old is the earliest we want to take them).

I hope all of you are happy and healthy. I'll talk to you again soon :)

Post 6 (4/24/14)

Hey folks. How have you all been? I hope you all had a great Easter. We had a great time and amazing food. Breakfast at my parents house followed by dinner at Jess' mom's house. Cali even got to hunt for eggs two days early with Grammy and Poppy before they headed back to Ohio.

Egg Hunt

Speaking if the Ohio family, what a great visit. They were here for a week and the kids were in heaven while they were here. Poor little Bodie was still fairly sick when they first got here (he was just getting over a cold and cutting a few teeth all at the same time). Thankfully he got better after a couple days into their visit and his mood did a full 180. He just suddenly became happy and fun and full of smiles.

Look at that face, what a stinker.

We were also lucky enough to have the Buckeye's here for Cali's third birthday. I'm still shocked that she's already 3. She's grown and changed so much over theses 3 quick years. She's really becoming quite a little person, and I love her more and more every day. She had so much fun that day. It was attended by only family because once we started thinking of friends to invite, the numbers quickly grew out of control. That's quite a blessing to have that many people in our lives that care about us.

Cousins helping cousins

My little Merida

Jess Enjoying Drewski's

Grammy and Poppy gave us a date night, which was awesome. We had dinner at the local food trucks thanks to Sacto MoFo (our local food truck organization). The food was amazing and then we were going to just go wander the mall and enjoy some shopping kid free. This is how you know you're getting old; we spent the remainder of our date night at the tempurepedic store shopping for mattresses, hahaha. That being said, we had a blast and will probably be buying a new mattress with all the works after we fix the roof :)

The next big thing coming up for us is an awesome trip to Disneyland. The really exciting part is that it's a kid-free trip. The bug reason for this is that it's a birthday trip for a close friend, Chelsea, and no one is bringing kids. Second to that is that we don't feel that the kids are old enough to really enjoy it enough yet to justify the cost. The only reason this is even possible is because of the amazing grandparents our kids have been blessed with, and their aunt, my sister. Everyone is pitching in to watch them while we're gone so that no one is over-burdened and we will be able to be gone for 5 full days. So, thank you in advance to all the family pitching in in this. I will post after the trip to tell you guys how it went for us, as well as for the family back here in Sacramento.

I wanted to say a quick thank you it all of you loyal followers. You guys encourage me to keep creating more content for you all. 

Post 5 (4/9/14)

Good morning my legion of readers. Ok, to be a little more accurate, good morning you two. Today funds us in the second week of April, the sun is shining, the temperature is comfortably in the mid to high 70's, and both kids have been sick the last two days. This is difficult to deal with for a few reasons.

(She's hamming it up for the blog)

First and foremost is how hard it is to see your children miserable and suffering without being able to do much of anything to help them. Cali, being the older kid, is a little bit easier to deal with because she can communicate and understand, to a degree, what's happening. There also a few other options with an older child. I was able to give her warm water with honey to help her throat (which really helped a lot and she liked the taste) and stuff like that. 

Bodie, on the other hand, is just a little baby and when babies are sick, it's heart-wrenching. Yesterday was the worse of it, I think. He had a slight fever and didn't want to do anything but sleep. He would wake up to eat, and then sit there and whine for an hour or so, and then he would be rubbing his eyes and leaning into my chest. I hate to see my little man suffer and know there's nothing I can do about it. With Cali, at least snuggling with her helped soothe her. Bodie has never been a snuggler so trying to comfort him doesn't even work. I did discover one little trick that seemed to calm him down though, if I held him in my lap, back against me, and gently rubbed his feet together, he would quiet down and relax....so cute. 

This all led to one of the least restful nights I've had as a parent in a while, and that's saying something with two kids, one only 7 months old. Cali woke up at 1:30am crying and trying to come upstairs. After I got her settled back into bed and going back to sleep, Bodie decided to wake up at 3am crying. I couldn't find his pacifier for the longest time which led to some house language under my breath while trying desperately to calm him done and not disturb my wife too much. She had to work today and being a nurse, I believe she needs to be on top of her game and well rested. I finally got him settled and sleeping. Then, at 5:30am, he woke back up starving. So, I had to feed him and change him and get him back down. This one didn't bother me as much because he often wakes up somewhere between 5 and 7 to eat, I was half expecting it. 

On the up side, Bodie slept till 8:30 this morning and Cali didn't get out if bed till 10:00. I know, I super lucked out in that one. And now, as of 11:30, Bodie is napping and Cali is watching her shows, giving me some valuable time to write to you all and vent about my night.

Another great thing, the in-laws are coming to town Saturday. Yeah, you read that right. I said, "great thing," and I meant it. They live in Ohio so they don't get to see the kids, let alone my wife, very often. The last time they got to see the kids, Bodie was only 2 months old. I know, 5 months isn't a very long time but all of you parents can vouch for the fact that there is a ton of change that happens in a child from 2 months to 7 months. Not to mention they are always so helpful and an all around welcome addition to our household when they come out. Albeit, welcome in a temporary status because this house is just too small for that many people for an extended amount of time ;) We love you Grammy and Poppy. 

Post 4 (3/26/14)

Hey gang. How have you guys been? Things have been pretty great around here. Super busy, which might explain why it's been a couple weeks since I last posted, but otherwise great. 

What's new around here, you ask? Well, not much that would seem big to a lot of people, but to parents, the little things really matter. 

Our son, Bodie, just finished cutting his 4th tooth. It's pretty cute because the first one up top was way over to the side, almost his canine. He already had the two front, bottom teeth and this one on the side was so adorable every time he would give us a huge smile, which is quite often because he is so happy. I couldn't help calling him our little snaggle-tooth baby. So funny. 

Our daughter, Cali, is coming up in her 3rd birthday and it's starting to show. I'm not sure who coined the term, "Terrible Twos" but I'm pretty sure they didn't have kids. I think they were just trying to work on making something that sounded clever, or they just had rotten kids. I've confirmed this with most of the more experienced parents I know and respect, and threes are much more terrible than twos. The closer my daughter gets to three, the more I see what they're talking about. She's developed this ability to completely ignore her mother and me. She also has discovered the joy of screaming and hitting when we have to leave somewhere that she's been having fun. Right after she's pushed us past the point of tolerating it, she likes to look at us and her most dramatic, cheesy Disney live-action TV show style voice, say, "I'm so so so sorry, mommy/daddy." 

The hard part is, she's apologizing, and doing it usually without being prompted anymore which is great, so we feel like forgiving is the right response. She then thinks that means all is past and the world is happy. She's pushed my wife to the point where she just doesn't want to talk to Cali for a few minutes, wanting some peace and quiet for a minute. She then apologizes, my wife forgives her, and then she starts trying to chat up a storm with my wife. At what point do we expect her to understand that an apology, followed by forgiveness, doesn't actually change the mood instantly?

Well, I'm pretty sure that this is one of those things that you just have to be consistent, persistent, and patient. She'll eventually grasp the concepts, as she has with everything else. It's only difficult because she's so smart and grasps other things that we would never expect her to grasp. Stick around for further adventures of Ms. Cali and the lessons of life (for Dad). 

So,etching else I'd like to throw out there, mostly for you parents out there with multiple kids. How do you balance the attention you give each kid? I find, from time to time thoughout the day, that when I'm addressing an issue with the baby (as those are so hard to ignore) my daughter is beginning to act out in an effort to get my attention. I'm just curious what other parents do in these situations.