Monday, November 30, 2009

One Fidy* A Day...

Our little gear-head (read: future engineer) and resident artist son is in the middle of a holiday where he gets one "fidy" (*his word for car, truck, train, or plane, although he now knows the word car, truck, and train) a day until my Matchbox stash runs out.

I thought maybe this could be a December tradition - sort of like a pre-emptive "Matchbox Hanukkah" only lasting 16 days because, well, I have 15 cars to give and one of his old cars ended up in the secret bag I'm keeping the newer models.

Each morning I present to him a new car and tell him all about it, and then introduce it to the other cars and car-size toys. Disney charges a hell of a lot for their "Cars" brand cars, so I'm sticking to the $.97 per car Matchboxes - or Hot Wheels.

When he's old enough I plan on learning all the parts of the engine with him. If he follows my model, he'll start with cars, then action figures, and then writing, and forget all about cars until he's 16 and needs to know how to drive and what "Regular Unleaded" means.

Already he's filled 4 large pads and journals with drawings, and none of the drawings are cars. But maybe by the time our dye-cast model car December Tradition is done he'll be outlining carburetors and fuel lines and asking me about our 6valve vs. VTech. We'll see. Vroom vroom.

Four Of Us Riding Nowhere...

Today...our first outing and ride as a full-car four-of-us family. Granted we were just returning a baby-wrap sling to Target, we did one of our favorite things: take a coastal ride listening to NPR to get tea and coffee while the kid - make that kids - nap. Both Harrison and Zelda slept the whole time. Throw in a Redbox movie and a bag of animal crackers, and you've got the cheapest family outing a father could ask for. Tanya and I have been taking rides for years now, and we know every inch of the North Shore's 127 and 127A from Rockport to Gloucester down to Lynn and Nahant and back up again. Their isn't a nook on the Cape we haven't physically (while driving) mapped out and slowed down in order to stop and smell the sea air more than a hundred times. Once we kept driving and ended up spending two weeks across America. That was before kids. And now that we have them, they'll see their fair share of the moving sky outside the window while dad keeps his hands at 10 and 2 and mom adjusts the volume on the radio.

It is a wonderful life.

The Girl Is Born!


Zelda Joan McKeen, born at 10:54 a.m. on November 22, 2009...perfectly beautiful and amazing. Our little girl.

Don't Bite The Baby...


(Newborn Zelda on left, newborn Harrison on right).

When our son Harrison was born, one of our sleepless-stuck-in-the-apt-jokes was "don't bite the baby," meaning that we loved him so much it was tempting to bite him - you know how that is, when you love someone you just want to bite them? Anyway, "don't bite the baby" became a running joke at our then apartment, and eventually our best advice on parenting.

My daughter was born a week ago and the wife and I are old pros already. She - Zelda Joan - is sweet and perfect and amazingly beautiful in every way. And Harrison is already noticing her (he tries hard to ignore her, but he's already kissed her a few times and said her name four times), as two year olds will act around things that don't directly benefit but may impede their style somehow.

I love being a father. And it's crazy that I have kids. Kids. Plural. Wow, kids.

So remember, if it cries, attend to it. If it pees or poops, clean it. If it's hungry, feed it. And as much as you want to, don't bite the baby.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Once Again, For the First Time...

BLOG!

I'm starting one up again although I write every day on Facebook and have several blogs out there in the ether. 48 weeks ago I was writing weekly on : http://jeremymckeen.livejournal.com/ and now I'll see where this will take me.

Feel free to comment as much as possible!

I start blogs the way I start passwords...I create one sacred, blog to end all blogs, then forget about it, have to be reminded, and start all over again in a year.



Copyright Don't Steal My Stuff (c) 2009.