today you are 15 months old! i used to say i’d just call you “one” once you hit your first birthday and stop saying __ months, but i can’t just call you “one”. you are so much more than that! plus, i like acknowledging every month we have had you our life. we kind of like you!
today we went to the park. yes, it’s january and yes, it’s the pacific northwest, but somehow we’ve gotten lucky this winter and the weather has been kind to us. you had never been on the swings before or big enough to really get around a park, but now you are a pro. you loved the swings and going down the slide with daddy. going down the slide with mommy wasn’t as fun because she got stuck. and it was her boots, not her large rear.
after we were done swinging and sliding, we went and played in the grass. this was huge for mommy because she’s a little ocd about dirt and it was muddy. however, clothes can be washed and you had a blast, and so did we. you even held our hands as we walked, which you normally don’t like to do (you’re a little stubborn at times, i have no idea where you got it from), but i want you to know how much it meant to both daddy and myself that you grasped our fingers and walked with us today.
listen kid, you’re the funniest, sweetest, silliest toddler i’ve ever met. sure, i’m biased, but everywhere you go people are in awe of you. you stop people in their tracks sometimes, and i am so proud that you are exactly the way you are. i am honored, lucky and proud to have created you. you are already 4 million times cooler than i’ll ever be, little lady. you and daddy are best buddies and i know a day will come soon when you two plot against me, and i have a feeling it will include cookies or rough housing, and that i will sound super old and mom-ish when it goes down.
try to look at life like your trip to park today – there will be ups, downs, dirt on your knees and breeze in your hair. and sometimes, you will need to hold your parents hands, and they will always be there for you to hold.
y second favorite thing about blogging is well, other blogs. finding new ones to read and enjoy is as much a part of my blogging day as writing my own. i found Smonk You and instantly loved it because Kenny was doing what many men don’t do – blogging about becoming a dad. it would be easy for me to sit here and be a total weirdo about how much i like this blog, and Kenny as a person, but instead i’ll get on with this guestpost:
The best (read worst) guest post ever.
A little bit ago Mandy asked me to do a guest post for her blog…honestly I lost a little respect for Mandy when she asked because I think I’m a terrible writer. I did write one great story in 11th grade English…we were supposed to write a diary entry of a puritan kid…I wrote about a satanic ritual he saw in a way that made the character seem so naive that he didn’t know what he was looking at…it was so scary/psychotic that my English teacher pulled me aside after class to see if everything was OK…I told him yes and that I just watch too much Geraldo…I got an A.
But since then my writing skills have tanked…like on a guest post I’ll write a preamble about a paper I did 20 years ago as if anyone cares…now that I think about it it may have actually been an A+.
But Mandy found my blog and thought something in there was good so here I am.
I started the blog because early on when my wife Staci found out she was pregnant I kept putting my foot in my mouth. Or I should say I rarely took it out. 3 days after we found out (about 4 weeks pregnant) I told her it was a bit weird that she was already bloated (for the record she was bloated it wasn’t weight.) The next day when she was feeling ill I told her it was psychosomatic because it was too early to be sick.
Because of all my gaffs, and my irreverent look at life, some friends told me I should write a blog…I did and I called it smonk you. Smonk is short for stumbling monk, a nickname a friend gave me (and a bar in Seattle I’ve never been to), and the ‘you’ was added because someone owned smonk.com and when it became available the registrar, register.com (don’t link these they suck), kicked it to snapnames for an auction starting at $60 (I refused to pay $60 for a $10 name.) After it didn’t sell on auction register.com held it hostage…so I was like f-you register.com and my site became smonkyou.com.
Before we got pregnant I had very little experience with kids especially babies…I do have a niece and nephew but in 36 years I hadn’t spent a lot of time around a little kid. To add to the inexperience, or maybe because of it, I was totally freaked out by children.
Staci is a Montessori teacher and I visited her room a couple times only to freeze up and sweat when kids would come talk to me…these were 3-6 year-olds and I didn’t get how they could speak so well and had no idea what to say to them. Staci told me to ask them questions or talk about their clothes or shoes…so my opener and closer with kids became “I like your shoes.” Literally this is all I could say.
But blogging made me think about being a dad a bit more…made me talk about it more. Plus I kind of unexpectedly got thrust into this world of mommybloggers and mommytwits (not sure if that’s correct.) And I started getting all kinds of info about kids, reading stories about newborns and getting feedback on how I’d be a great dad.
I kind of feel like Michael Keaton in Mr. Mom, except it’s real, I have to go to work, I don’t get to play poker with coupons and I haven’t kicked a hole in the TV, yet…
Blogging became cathartic for me…the new community I found myself in gave me a ton of knowledge…even knowledge about birth and pregnancy that my Staci didn’t yet have…I’d give an example but our baby was born a week ago and I’m having trouble remembering things from before he was born.
Which brings me to becoming a dad…I was able to work out a lot of my fears before our son, Miloh, was born on January 22nd. I had such great support from the mommytwits that some, who will remain nameless, were almost stalking the birth. I was flattered.
I started blogging as this dude who knew nothing about kids, was scared to talk to them and was afraid to hold them for fear of breaking them. I became a dad who from day one was one-handing my little dude, changing diapers and giving him his first off-hill snowboard lesson…that started with me showing him what his heels and toes are.
And last I don’t think I could do a guest post on Mandy’s blog without some awesome Vietnamese recipe. I’m loving all her recipes but I’m a vegetarian so i was planning on doing up a vegetarian version of her Pho and add the recipe to this post…but Miloh decided to come the day I was going to make it.
Then I saw her recipe for Vietnamese noodle salad. I thought I’d share with you all my super easy vegetarian version for new parents.
First you’ll need a phone. What you’re going to do is call your favorite Vietnamese restaurant, mine is called Lotus (www.lotusgrantmall.com.) Order the Vietnamese noodle salad. Get it with Tofu, veggies or such. My place does mock duck which is basically wheat gluten and tastes awesome so that’s how I get it. Instead of the fish sauce they give you ask for an alternative…Lotus has a garlic sauce. Pick up the food in 10-15 minutes and enjoy.
An alernative to calling would be to walk or drive to said restaurant, ask for a table, sit down and order the salad.
Please look for my new cookbook on Amazon.com in the next few months.
editors note (that’d be me, mandy): if you tweet, follow him @smonkyou. also, i didn’t steal that picture, he gave it to me and lastly, he is NOT talking about me re: stalking the birth of Miloh. at all. noop.
russel sprouts, you ask? those yucky little tiny head-of-cabbage looking buggers that is the ultimate of cliches about not liking veggies? oh yes my friends. oh yes.
my love affair with the b.s. (pardon me if i keep using this during the whole post. it is not only shortening up the word brussel sprouts, but is also making me giggle) started many many years ago. my family has always prepared them cut in half and sauteed in garlic and butter until golden around the edges, a bit crunchy, but not too. delish.
this week i have been cooking my arse off and i wanted to make something with some b.s. i consulted my good friend google and found hundreds of recipes for pasta with b.s. they were all a little different, but all pretty much contained the same main ingredients: b.s., bacon, pasta and cheese. i know, right? the motherload.
the following recipe is not any of those. i made it by doing what i normally do with b.s. and just threw it on some pasta. seriously.
here is your shopping list:
um, brussel sprouts. as many as you’d like, really.
one box of rigatoni
BACON (since i like easy, mine was the hormel already-cooked and made into bits kind, found in the salad dressing aisle).
parmesan cheese, shredded
butter
minced garlic
cut your new little friends into halves (or quarters if they are on the large side). saute them in butter and minced garlic over low-medium heat while you cook your pasta. you want them at a nice happy medium between crunchy and mushy. like i said, golden on the edges. in the last few minutes throw in the bacon crumbles.
i literally tossed the rigatoni in butter, salt and black pepper and called it a day. top with the delicious brussel sprout/bacon concoction and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
i’m definitely not seeing the part where it could get any easier. i ate an embarrassing amount. so simple. won’t you make friends with brussel sprouts?
p.s. monday is the big day! have you entered to win a spunky stork gift certificate yet? if not, go! and stay tuned for squee-worthy news regarding a Harper & Spunky Stork joint venture…
kay, so it’s only really one girl. but how can i not give a little to love to one of my favorite duran duran songs? eeny-ways, i realized it had been a very long time since i’d posted a video of Harper. like, since she very first pulled herself up and i magically captured in on film. that was in august, my friends. she is not much bigger, but her hair is longer and her brain is bigger for sure.
here is us hanging out this morning. proof of said larger brain also within.
oh, and if you’re a new reader and like unbelievably cute videos set to music, check out this post of a project my cousin Sammy made for a class at NYU. it makes me smile every single time i watch it and you’ll do the same, unless of course you have a heart made of steel and you’re a puppy kicker, in which case please leave my blog. there is nothing for you here. please leave. (pretty woman? anybody?).
ear Harper,
y second favorite thing about blogging is well, other blogs. finding new ones to read and enjoy is as much a part of my blogging day as writing my own. i found 
russel sprouts, you ask? those yucky little tiny head-of-cabbage looking buggers that is the ultimate of cliches about not liking veggies? oh yes my friends. oh yes.
kay, so it’s only really one girl. but how can i not give a little to love to one of my favorite duran duran songs? eeny-ways, i realized it had been a very long time since i’d posted a video of Harper. like, since she 
