DC Urban Dad

365 days in 12 minutes, 45 seconds

Happy Birthday Mini-Kamp!!!  At 3:19 pm on May 27th of 2008 you came into our lives and changed it forever.

We love you and are blessed to have you.

It's hard to take 365 days and boil it down but here it goes......

365 days in 12 minutes, 45 seconds from DC Urban Dad on Vimeo.

I can only imagine what the next 365 have in store.

Oh, the places we will go

It's official, we are in the final days of our countdown to 1.

The day we never really imagined is approaching.  The day that we kinda saw way off in the distance some 365 days ago, but seemed so surreal at the time is in our grasp.

But my Mini-Kamp, we have only just begun.  There are more places to go, see, experience and conquer.

And below to round out my Top 5 Endeavor (find my others here, here, here and here), I present my Top 5 Things I am looking forward to in the coming year.

.....Running.  We have already conquered crawling and walking.....

Of course running comes next. Look out world here she comes.

.....Swimming.  Forget the land, let's hit the open water.  On June 6th, we brave the chlorine and get our water wings.   That's right folks, this DC Urban Dad is hitting the JCC for four weeks of kids swimming lessons (they even blog and tweet).

.....Experience different foods.  We have branched out to turkey burgers, pasta, mango, watermelon, yucca, and of course the Five Guys French fry.

But, oh there is soooooo much more.

.....Facing forwards.  It really sucks that I have to talk to the back of your head.  I can't wait till we can see eye to eye (and Mommy's legs don't have to be so smushed).

.....Expanded vocabulary.  We get the dada, dad, mama, mom, dog, murph, hi (and I swear she called me by my first name).  We get the occational juice, grape, duck and please.  But I cannot wait to find out what comes next.  I just need to continue and clean up my act.  We don't need something that rhymes with duck slipping through.

 So there you have it folks.  The last of my Top 5's.  We are heading towards the last few days of that first year.  Ain't nothing gonna stop us now.  It's crazy how fast it has gone and it's crazy how it continues to speed up.  It makes ya dizzy don't it.

Dizamn this is fun

Folks as many of you know and some of you are learning and still learning, parenting ain't a cake walk.  It adds many layers of complexity to your already complex life.

It takes time.

It takes money.

It takes compassion and dedication.

Hell, it takes perseverance, humility, patience, fortitude and everything else under the sun.  But dizamn it sure is a hell a lot of fun.

And it's hard to believe that in less than 2 weeks my little Mini-Kamp will be 1.  So to keep up with my commitment, here is a new set of 5 things (Full disclosure here, I stole this idea from Dad's Workbench - thanks for the inspiration):

The 5 things I love to do with my Mini-Kamp:

.....Share breakfast and dinner.  Life is busy and sometimes you forget to just stop and smell those damn roses.  This is our time to do it; our family time.  Our time just to talk and decompress without toys, computers (most of the time), blackberries, phones, etc.

.....Snuggle and nap.  Nothing is better than a good nap on a lazy afternoon.  The only thing to top that is a good nap with the Mini-Kamp.

.....Run.  I hate just sitting around on a weekend (In DC, join our group).  Mrs DC Urban Dad and I are very active and I want this little bean to be active too.  You all know about my love affair with my BOB.  There is nothing more fun then strapping the bean down and hitting the road. 

 

.....Read.  Growing up I was not (and still today) the most avid reader.  I don't want that for my bean.  I want her to love and crave books.  So one of my favorite things to do with her is read. 

This is what we have created:

.....Just being silly.  Life is no fun if you can't laugh.  There are times to be serious, but then there are times to just be silly.  Those are the times I love.

 

So now it's your turn, what do you love to do with your little one or ones?

Two down, three to go

We are heading towards the homestretch in our countdown to 1.  And since it's Monday and it's raining I am gonna take the easy way out.  So as a part of my Top 5 list, I present to you 5 of my favorite photos of my little bean.....

5) What is that in your hair?

4) My little Tar Heel

3) This is where my gray hairs come from

2) The Force is strong in this one

1) Never been happier

The countdown continues........

When this all began last year, 5/27/09 seemed light years away.  In fact the first few weeks crept on at such a pace, I thought I would be 40 when she finally turned 1.

But here we are 4 weeks away from the big day.  Damn it's really is frightening how fast time goes by once it gets cranking.  I still find it hard to fathom that we started out with this little thing.....

And now we have this.....

Much has changed since went into the hospital the morning of May 27th, 2008 and it feels like each day there is something new and different.

So this week in honor of the 12 month countdown I thought I would take a look at the 5 Things That Have Changed Since May 2008.....

.....I no longer posses a deathly fear of holding babies.  Believe me, before the Mini-Kamp came into my life I was baby-challenged.  Just the sight of a baby and I would head in the other direction.  It's the head guys, the floppy head.  Now, bring em on!!!!

.....I no longer have the ability to sleep through anything - just the slightest sound and I am up and ready to go.

.....I now fully appreciate the power of the schedule and the freedom it provides.  If it ain't on the schedule it ain't gettin' done.

.....I now live and die by the DVR and Hulu.  Thanks to Hulu and I can follow the crappy season of 24.

And FINALLY.....

.....It is only now that I am starting to understand my parents and what they have gone through.  I can only imagine how enlightening the teenage years will be - Mom, Dad, sorry I was a butthole sometimes.

Let the countdown begin......

Holy crap people, in 5 weeks, 5 weeks my little MiniKamp will be 1. It's so hard to even fathom that she was this small such a short time ago and now she is this big and growing and absorbing more each day.

In honor of the 5 week countdown, each week I will be pushing out a top five list and this week, I thought I would start with the 5 Things I Remember from that wonderful day.

.....I remember my wife waking me up at 3 am with contractions and sneaking in sleep until 7 then feverishly trying to write an email to my new employee starting that day.

.....I remember how long it took to get us signed in at the hospital and then thinking I probably shouldn't leave for a lunch break because my kid will come during that time and sure enough things got exciting while I was gone (luckily for me I was not there, Mrs. DC Urban Dad tells me I would have freaked out and the little one waited till I got there)

.....I remember thinking and asking whether or not I had my scrubs on right seconds before heading off to the OR. In fact, my exact words to my wife who was heading in to have a C-Section was "Hey hon, does this look good?"

.....I remember the sense of calm from all the doctors around us in the OR and truly knowing we were in good hands (I even remember their conversation - texting and teenagers)

.....And I remember the first sound of the MiniKamp's voice and the overwhelming feeling of completeness when they put her in my arms (And then crying like a little girl when I called to talk to my parents).