Catching Up with the Dude’s: Big Boy Undies, Getting Published & Rolling, Rolling, Rolling…

Happy Summer y’all! It’s official. Get out there and soak up that vitamin D.

But first, a quick Dude Family update.

Big Boy Undies

I guess Little Dude likes to wait until his birthday to cross milestones off his to-do list. He took his first steps on numero uno. And he mastered the art of potty training almost to the day of #3.

He showed no interest in potty training. Zero. Until he did. And now he’s a peeing machine. He prefers to pee in the bathtub…especially in his boat. But he doesn’t discriminate much…rocks, tennis balls, dogs, and especially Daddy’s feet.

It’s pretty cool to watch it click. Ah, pee and poop are such proud moments for Mommy & Daddy’s everywhere. 🙂

Rockin’ Big Boy Undies

Getting Published

In the off chance that I haven’t chirped enough about how amazingly rad Mrs. Dude is, we now have published proof.

Mrs. Dude is a super cool photographer with an amazing eye. Oh, you want proof from someone other than her husband?!

Ok, how about The Knot! Yep, the super popular wedding mag just published Mrs. Dude online and in print. Pretty awesome. Check ‘er out…

The Knot: A Vintage Destination Wedding

Although, her specialty tends to be newborns. Makes sense, right? Amazing Mom = great with newborns. Here’s a pic she snapped this morning…oh, no biggie, just a sunrise treasure washing up on the beach. 🙂

Mrs. Dude Rocks

 Rolling, Rolling, Rolling…

The theme for the Dude Family summer seems to be Rolling. The Princess and Little Dude celebrated their B-days with dueling parties last week.

The Princess scored a bike, skateboard AND roller skates. The Little Dude scored a skateboard he’s been dreaming about.

And The Littlest is now a rolling machine.

Our gorgeous summer days are filled with hours of rolling.

Thumbs Up!

Takin’ Care of Business

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dm7cPbBO6Y[/youtube]

Rollin’

And the Dude? I’m just kick’in it. Lovin’ the kiddos. Lovin’ the Mrs. Soakin’ up the NOW.

Enjoy the summer y’all! Wake up early to catch that sunrise, stay up too late kickin’ it around the campfire, enjoy some cerveza watching the waves crash with sand between your toes. Life is short.

PS – In addition to rolling around the world, The Princess is now sharing her art with the world. As one of her summer projects, the 8 year old aspiring artist has setup an Etsy shop to share her view of the world. Starting with a few pieces of nature photography, but much more art to come. Let’s get creative!

The Beard, a Dude’s Best Friend: Young, Healthy, Handsome, Sunblock & Delicious Beer

Don't Worry My Dad Has a Beard

Don’t Worry My Dad Has a Beard

I’ve often professed my love for facial hair. The Dude is a card carrying member of Beard Team USA, and I even have a blog category dedicated to fun with facial hair.

It seems the beard really is a dude’s best friend…

Long live the beard.

PS – I scored some sweet beard oil for Father’s Day. Never used beard oil before, but I’m sold. The Dude is a smitten kitten. Smells great. Keeps the beardiness healthy, handsome, and shining. Color me impressed.

Freaker is Freakin’ Awesome!

The DudeI love awesomeness. Freakin’ awesomeness is even better!

The beauty of the intertubes is that awesomeness is hand delivered to me on the reg. Thank you interwebs.

I’ve mentioned Huckberry in a previous post, and if you haven’t checked them out – nay, subscribed! – then you must be a hater of all that is awesome.

Get wit it. The Huck is da bomb. (side note: my three year old loves to tell everyone he’s “Da Bomb!” Pretty hilarious.)

Today Huckberry sent some freakin’ awesomeness my way, and it’s definitely worth a pass along.

Check out Freaker. Love the idea…ok, it’s just a koozy, but everyone needs a koozy. And it’s about time the koozy was upgraded…to freakin’ awesome.

More than the rad product, I dig the Freaker style.

Right on Freaker. Great design. Great execution.

And they are right down the road from me in NC – Made in the US of A, baby! Beach bums from another mum.

Although, I suggest you head north if you’re looking for waves Freakers. And if you want to drop some Freaker awesomeness on the Dude’s doorstep.

Keep on truckin’ Freaker.

PS – Darn right I scooped up “The Dude” Freaker. Thanks for the awesome @Huckberry & @Freaker. 

Introducing the Boy with Too Many Names: Jazzy Mack

The Dude returned from a four month hiatus in early May.

Why the hiatus?

3 kids. Need I say more?

An explanation from Jim Gaffigan – 4 kids…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEbZrY0G9PI[/youtube]

We welcomed the newest little dude in late January. It was an awesome surprise from start to finish.

Jazzy Mack was born in our house! I caught him in the bathroom. We were chilling in our own bed as we met each other for the first time. It was awesome.

For the past four months we’ve been trying to regain our balance. Three kids is crazy. Include a new born, and it’s absolute chaos. But the balance is returning.

Mrs. Dude shared the little man’s birth story a few weeks ago. I won’t rewrite the awesomeness, but I will add a few thoughts from the Dude’s perspective.

  • Jazzy waited until the last minute to arrive. And Mrs. Dude was uncomfortable.
  • Mrs. Dude worked HARD to make sure we weren’t pressured into induction.
  • The Boy arrived an hour after the water broke. An hour! Amazing. No way we could make it to the hospital an hour and a half away.
  • We expected it. We were prepared. Mentally and fully supplied.
  • Jazzy showed up after pushing for a bit. And Daddy caught his son!
  • Daddy caught his son! Amazing. Amazingly, amazingly rad.

He is a super cool little man. Very chill. With some big eyes and expressive eye brows.

The perfect addition for The Dudes.

Although, we did give him two names. And we kinda dig ’em both. And we have a few nicknames that we dig too.

He has a lot of names.

Confusing for some? Perhaps. Perfect for us.

Jasper Mack

9 pounds 2 ounces

21 inch’s long

10:33 pm

Brown hair

alert & healthy

PS – Want some more Jim Gaffigan? Here’s some behind the scenes with Jimmy Gaff. His perspective on kids and life is pretty great.

Happy 4th Anniversary Mrs. Dude – Love The Dude…and Old Gregg

The Mrs. and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary yesterday. Amazing. How does time move so quickly?

Remember when a school day seemed long? And a school year?! Insanely long.

Now, life is moving at a lightning pace. 4 years! Awesome.

Thanks for being you.

And thanks for introducing me to Old Gregg.

When the Mrs. and I began our courtship (You like that old-timey choice of words? I’m retro.), she introduced me to the most amazingly bizarre, creepy, and hilariously funny video – Old Gregg.

Old Gregg is one of the creepiest, yet amazingly funny videos I’ve come across. It’s an instant classic.

To celebrate our 4th anniversary, I give you the scaly man fish – Old Gregg…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIInySnQe4I[/youtube]

When Life Attacks You With Birds

 

When birds attack - mocking bird umbrella

When birds attack – mocking bird umbrella

For as long as I can recall, my father has had one predominant fear…

  1. Birds – Seriously, birds. He doesn’t trust them. Their fast and unpredictable. Shifty little characters. Doesn’t want to be around them. Doesn’t want to talk to them. Definitely not as a pet. And most certainly no birds swooping in an attack like manner in his general vicinity.

We’ve let him know how crazy this fear is…on countless occasions. An ongoing family joke…the crazy old man that fears birds.

Come on, how often do birds attack?

I’d say the warm glass of life is half full most of the time. Not many bird attacks. Lots of radness.

Except when it’s not.

Life is fast and unpredictable…like those damn birds. 

I believe the good far outweighs the bad, but sometimes birds DO attack.

It turns out the Dude’s Padre is in the process of losing at least a portion of his eye sight. He’s 65’ish, so I guess he’s had a good run with seeing and all, but it’s never cool to lose the ability to see low flying objects…like birds.

The Old Man has AAION, which basically means he had a little stroke in his eye, and the result is lost vision. No treatment. Just the lose of vision to some degree in the effected eye.

Right now that’s about 25% of the left eye. No telling how much he’ll lose just yet, but it is slightly better than the more progressive form that can take 100% of sight and require years of steroid treatment.

Crazy old man stuff.

Getting old is hard. It’s difficult when systems malfunction.

However, as hard as life can be, as hard as aging can be, I suspect there’s an art to it. And I suspect that much of the art of living/aging has to do with our ability to laugh. Laugh at ourselves, laugh at the world around us, and laugh at the downright absurdity of life.

Losing vision is not cool. But finding a reason to laugh definitely is.

In addition to being crazy, life is also pretty comical.

The Old Man has to figure out how to deal with the stress of vision lose, and the effects this will have on his life. The figurative birds of life are on the attack.

But to lighten the mood, life has also sent actual live birds to attack as well. 

Hilarious!

A pair of mocking birds is holding my parents hostage in their own house. It’s a war zone.

I got the full report over the phone last night. I called to get an eye update, and after some somber discussion, the hilarity ensued.

Two mocking birds have a nest with babies in their yard. The “attacks” have progressed from near the nest to throughout the entire yard. They can’t leave the house without the birds swooping in.

My Dad has been running to and from the house with a tennis racket! It has now progressed to an umbrella.

He has done his research, and once the eggs arrive, it is a punishable offensive to get rid of the birds/nest. The nest is there to stay until the babies leave.

He’s also learned that mocking birds claw larger birds with their talons while also defecating and vomiting on them. Awesome! The bird fear has expanded in grossness.

As I was on the phone, my Mom arrived home, and I was able to listen as my Dad yelled out directions from the upstairs window…

  • You’re good. I see them both in the nest.
  • Uh oh, they see you.
  • They’re on the move.
  • Get going! They’re coming for you!

Battle orders. Fantastic.

Never easy to see the comedy of life as you experience it, but the Old Man with eye sight dwindling and bird fears growing, was able to brush aside the stress and cackle with his son about the absolute absurdity of life.

The first time he laughed in over a week. And I’m glad I got to share it.

So what’s the moral of the story?

  • Irrational fears aren’t always irrational?
  • Worry about something for long enough and it will happen?
  • We’re all under attack by a new race of super birds?

I’d say the lesson here is that life is unpredictable. Things will change, the road will get bumpy…birds will attack, but we need to find a reason to laugh. 

Life is short. Enjoy what you have…while you have it.

Awesome Update:

Got this text from front line this morning…

The birds won’t attack if you look at them, so there are eyes to download. Our tactics are working.