daddies blog, too. [a guest post by SmonkYou]

Posted on | January 29, 2010 | 11 Comments

M 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.

Category: guest posts
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Comments

  • http://the818.com Morgan @ The818

    OMG, now there are two of MY favorite bloggers on one page. I’m more than a little jealous of this pairing. Not going to lie.

    And I am also not lying when I say that I definitely did not e-stalk the birth of Miloh either.

    [Reply]

    Mandy Reply:
    January 29th, 2010 at 10:29 pm

    hope you don’t think you’re exempt from a email in the future begging you to do a guest appearance.

    [Reply]

  • http://the818.com Morgan @ The818

    Also, I don’t know when OMG snuck into my e-vocabulary, but I apologize.

    [Reply]

  • http://kristimaristi.com Kristi Maristi

    Please don’t make Miloh burn his woobie in the fireplace, Mr. Mom.

    Sweet Picture!

    [Reply]

  • http://spunkystork.com the Spunky Stork

    said restaurant!

    Great post. Cute picture. Funny. I think I follow smonkyou on twitter, but I’ll check.

    I like how the first letter on the post is a pink and purple, very girly “M”

    [Reply]

    Mandy Reply:
    January 29th, 2010 at 10:27 pm

    i try to only surround myself with people who say “said _______” !

    [Reply]

  • http://www.parentinginprogress.wordpress.com Mae

    Love it, what an awesome post! Been following Kenny for a while now and am super excited to see him featured here on The Haps. His tiny little face (Miloh’s not Kenny’s) is just killing me. Has Jill seen this? She’s been looking for her baby rabies again, this might help. Jill! Get over here!!

    I also was most definitely not Twitter-stalking Miloh’s birth (which must have been super awkward for Staci come to think of it… “Honey I’m not trying to rush you but the internet is waiting. how’s it going in there?”) but would like to thank Kenny for keeping us all entertained while we ignored/ waited for the news, with his excessive and amusing overuse of seemingly random hashtags.

    [Reply]

  • http://www.smonkyou.com kenny

    How’d you get that picture? Thanks Mandy…and thanks all for reading…and an extra special thanks for stalking Miloh’s birth. #IWasBummedTheBirthWasntATrendingTopic #NonTwitterHashtagsRock

    [Reply]

  • http://babyrabies.com Jill @BabyRabies

    Awwwww! I have to thank you, Mandy, for introducing me to Kenny. Have loved reading his blog and hearing his side of the story. Great post, Kenny, even better picture. <<That's not to mean your post was bad, but just to say that picture made my ovaries nearly crawl out of my cervix and slap me on the face, shouting "YOU NEED ANOTHER TINY BABY!'

    [Reply]

    kenny Reply:
    January 30th, 2010 at 8:10 pm

    I’m going to start renting Miloh out for parties to women who want another…

    [Reply]

  • http://biggerbythebelly.blogspot.com Babe_Chilla

    I love a daddy blogger (yours being the only one I’ve ever read), and I was totally stalking Miloh’s birth, even though you barely know me and I’ve offered you no useful advice. In fact, you’ve offered me some. I’m trying to get my “petrified of babies” husband to read your blog, but that would be like, admitting this is all happening :)

    Great guest poster Mandy!

    [Reply]