After four and a half months, it was time to part ways. We made it through a lot together, but it had to end at some point.
When we flipped the seasonal script to Spring a couple weeks ago, the winter beard came off. It’s tough to destroy a creation I worked on for so long, but it’s kind of liberating. That thing was a beast.
It was the biggest beard I’ve had, and it was pretty sweet, but the Dude is ready for some spring. I’m ready for warm days, veggies growing in the garden, and surf with something lighter than a lead suit.
Luckily Mrs. Dude surprised me with a great photo session to memorialize Winter Beard 2011. Don’t worry my Dad has a beard…awesome!
Little Dude is officially on the move. He’s actually been on the move for a little over a week. I’ve been trying to get this post out since last weekend, but life happened. No good excuse, just a series of bad ones.
Kids. That will be my general excuse for the foreseeable future.
Here we are a week and a half late. L.D. is crawling, and luckily, this video is actually the very first time he put together a serious crawl…as you can tell from Mrs. Dude’s excitement. I happened to grab the camera at the right time.
Little Dude is loving his new found freedom. Just like figuring out how to sit-up, it’s a whole new world for him. He can follow his interests wherever they take him.
After a week of crawling experience, it’s safe to say he’s got the hang of his new skill. He’s pretty much sprint-crawling now…sprawling? And the things he’s interested in…generally the most dangerous non-baby items in view.
Be careful what you wish for. I guess it’s a cliche for a reason. It’s a awesome to see each new skill, but as his freedom increases our responsibility increase as well. And I think this relationship stays the same until roles reverse and he starts changing my diapers.
We go through our days acting like we have it all figured out. Simply tune into 24-hour news station to hear experts being experty…O’reilly anyone?
But that’s just an extreme example. We all do it. Everyday, all day. That’s how we get through life. Fake it until we make it.
Parenting is nothing but faking it until we make it. Bachelor Dude was not much different from Daddy Dude. Sure, we lived a somewhat different daily existence, but down deep, we’re the same dude. But one day I woke up and I was a Dad, and the the parental faking began. My parents did it before me, and their’s before them. That’s how we exist. We experience, and we learn from our experiences.
However, the rub is that down deep, we really don’t know…about anything. We can act like we are the best parents in the world, but we’re just making it up as we go. We’re ok given our conditions, but no one has the answers. In the same way that no corporation is the perfect corporation, no government is the perfect government, no country the perfect country. We need to be careful of the “experts” we put our faith in.
We let our experty faking abilities cloud the reality that regardless of how much we have advanced as a civilization (mind you many civilizations have advanced quite well before us), we are still very far from understanding the most essential mysteries of life. We are easily consumed by our daily activities, but if we take the time to ponder the biggest of the big pictures, it is easy to see we are clueless.
Which isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s a great thing. Acknowledging the unknown creates so much opportunity. It allows us to drop our minor worries (that often seem major) and focus our attention on priorities. Cheesy, yes…but life, love, family, happiness, community. All of the really fun, warm words that bring us closer to each other.
Where is my rabbit hole of ramblings leading us?
Mrs. Dude and I battle over bugs. Mrs. Dude is very anti-bug in the house….especially spiders. Not that I’m pro-bug in the house, but the Dude generally abides. I’m not overly concerned about a spider.
Mrs. Dude used to squeal an ax-murder scream and expect the Dude to ride in on his white horse to save her every time a bug was encountered. Then reality set in. I don’t kill bugs. I catch them and put them outside. And most of the time I don’t catch them well, so they generally escape.
I’m not worried about it. I’m not bothering the bug; I don’t expect them to bother me. This philosophy doesn’t sit well with Mrs. Dude.
Reluctantly, she has accepted me for who I am. She now kills her own bugs…and leaves them for me to clean up.
But the deep questions still linger in my mind. While I am now just the janitor that scoops up the kill, I’m still involved in the process. It makes me wonder where we draw these arbitrary lines.
If I’m confused, my kids must be as well. Should I just fake it until I make it? Ignore my ignorance of the answers to life’s deeper questions?
So, the ramblings lead us here, to this video. I came across this video today, and I was going to share it with Mrs. Dude so she’ll know what I’m singing to her every time she requests that I clean up a dead bug, but then I figured a quick blog post would be in order. Now 45 minutes and 10 paragraphs later I’m finally getting to the video.
Here’s a link to a recent article about how taking naps promotes our ability to learn. This is the most recent study in a long list of studies that say that naps are the bees knees. Yeah, that cool.
Naps are amazing. For real, amazing. But naps aren’t as easy as one may think. There are many types of naps, and every nap is unique based on the conditions and the nap time goals. This is not the proper time for me to share all of my napping knowledge (sweet alliteration), but it’s safe to say that quality napping requires committed practice.
I’ve been refining my napping skills for years. And I think it’s time for me to take my napping to the next level. I’ve done my research (i.e. a one minute Google search), and it dawned on me that the napping community lacks a meaningless figurehead with absolutely no power and a pointless title. And I think I’m just the person to fill this made-up-by-me incredibly unimportant position.
I do hereby declare to the world (i.e. the internet) that the Dude is from here forth the self-proclaimed King of Naps!
Howard Stern did it for media. I think the Dude can do it for naps.
Not only is the Dude an ordained Dudeist Priest, and a dishwasher loading wizard, but now, also the King of Naps. I’m adding some serious credentials (i.e. letters) to the end of my name: The Dude, O.D.P., D.L.W., & K.o.N.
Enough typing…I need a nap. Sleep on my napping subjects.
PS – Don’t worry. That’s an old photo. The beard is still intact. Beard update in the near future.
As I may have mentioned on a few occasions, the Princess is a bit girly. And by “a bit,” I mean completely.
She once claimed she didn’t want to be a dancer because dancing made her ribs tired!? And I somehow passed up the opportunity to write post recapping the soccer season – I think I blocked the experience out of my memory – but let’s just say that the last game consisted of lots of tears and absolutely zero running until she realized there was a trophy at the end…anything for jewelry.
But that all changes when she steps into the dojo (That’s not the name in Tae Kwon Do, but it reminds me of the Karate Kid so deal with it TKD purists.). She becomes assertive and strong. She stays focused and doesn’t shy away from the physicality. She listens and understands the power of discipline.
Tae Kwan Do has quietly become our favorite Princess activity.
The other night The Princess broke her second board, and got her second yellow stripe, passing her test with an Axe Kick.
I didn’t include an entire 80’s montage, but I did catch the magic moments.
Do you remember the Public Service Announcements from the 80’s?! They were awesome!
Instead of a commercial for some sort of toy we didn’t need, our favorite cartoons (which if watched now are totally hilarious in their own right – Snorks?!) were sometimes randomly broken up by amazingly awesome announcements that the public must absolutely be aware of. Messages like cheese is a great snack, turn pot handles in on the stove, and my all-time favorite, school lunch is good.
The entire 80’s scene is priceless. Cheesy cheesiness played out to bad music.
I still find myself “hankering for a hunk-a. Slab-a slice-a, chunk-a.” And singing “Pizza! Spaghetti! Burgers!” from time to time. Oh, Chow Daddy.
Who woulda thunk PSA’s would have such a lasting effect? Where did they go? I miss you awesome PSA’s.
This PSA won’t carry that same 80’s super radness, but it must be shared.
Are you aware the blog is dieing? The blog, as a category of writing/communication, has entered its death spiral. And Facebook and Twitter are to blame (don’t forget to follow those links to my pages – wink, wink).
Yeah, not really. Blogs probably aren’t dead. But I did read a story on Newser today – I look for my news in no more than two paragraphs – that said the number of new blogs is on the decline due to new technologies/websites like Facebook and Twitter.
I don’t think we’re headed towards the death of the blog, but I do think great blogs need support. I love blogs as a form of communication. Blogs give the ability of mass communication to everyone. They give power to the little guy. And that’s a good thing.
I learn much more from the blogs I follow than I ever have from the depressing news that pours from our tv’s. And the ideas I’m reading about our topics I’m deeply interested in. Good blogs are worth supporting.
So, as my public service announcement, I would like to introduce you to two new blogs that were born last night. I didn’t ask for permission from these blogs, but I figure there are times in life when you need to head out on the ledge and take a chance…so I guess I’ll give a little push onto the ledge.
First time I’ve seen this. A new sport in the making?
Here’s the description from YouTube:
“Chuck Patterson is a former pro Freeskier, a professional Waterman, and one of the most fearless humans we’ve ever met. After a brief experiment with skiing on waves several years ago, Chuck’s passion for the idea was re-lit after watching Mike Douglas and Cody Townsend ski the waves of Maui in 2009. In January 2011, Chuck followed the biggest swell of the year to Maui, to see if he could successfully ski Pe’ahi or ‘Jaws’ — one of the most powerful waves on earth.”
