Author: daustin23

You might not know what this is.  I’ll give you a hint.  It was a very popular toy in our house.  If you look again you’ll see that it’s a helicopter.  Sorry, it was a helicopter.  Tonight, Ryan and I were flying this little guy around the house, chasing Maddie and flying over Coop’s head.  Then, it was time for bed.  So, reluctantly, we left the chopper charging in its stand.  I then put the stand on the stove and went upstairs.  Yup, on the stove.  What I didn’t realize was, though we were done with dinner, Jenn wanted some tea.  So, she turns the stove on and WHAMO… our fun helicopter is turned into mush.

The exchange with Ryan went something like this:
Ryan: “Daddy, I smell something.”
Me: “Yeah, me too buddy.”
Ryan: “I smell burning”
Me: “Yeah.”
Jenn: “It’s me! I burned the helicopter”
Me: “What! Oh, man.”
Jenn: “Yeah, you left it on the stove and I turned the stove on to boil water and then went to check my email and .. ummm.”
Ryan: “You cooked my helicopter!  We need to go to the store!”
Me:” Yeah, it’s been cooked, we’ll have to go to the store.”
Ryan: “But, umm, Mommy cooked my helicopter!  You shouldn’t do that!”

He’s right.  We shouldn’t cook helicopters….. Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone….everyone but our helicopter…

I believe there are life lessons hidden for us all over the place.  Take the bird that flies into the window.  The lesson?  Seeing is believing.  Take the biscuit that tastes like salt.  Baking powder and baking soda are NOT the same thing. How about the lab that eats an entire can of baby formula?  18,000 calories will give you a stomach ache.

I say all of that to remind you of this lesson.  You might be sad that the opportunity is gone but look closer, it might be just under your nose…or on top of it!

A brief message to Child Protective Services.  We didn’t put this puff on his nose, he did it all by himself!  🙂

I’m sitting in a hotel room in Bristol, CT tonight as I prepare for another day at work tomorrow and I get this photo from home.  Cooper, the boy who can’t walk nor even stand unassisted, has decided that he can climb on top of a fire truck and play with the train set…unassisted.  As I read notes about the US Postal Service halting Saturday delivery to save money, I wonder how long news like this would’ve taken to be delivered to me a hundred years ago.

In my lifetime, I can recall having to do things like “develop film” and “mail pictures in padded envelopes.”  The world is moving very fast but then again, I’m not sure if it’s digital imagery that tells me this or the fact that just yesterday I was watching this little monkey enter this world.

All I can say is, technology and pictures like this make being away from home just a little bit easier.

Having two children is really neat.  I’d sort of forgotten what it was like to leave the pet rock stage of child rearing and enter the personality development stage but that’s where we are with Coop these days.  Ry has pretty much established his personality and it appears that he’s VERY much a mix between his parents.  He has my penchant for the spotlight and yet has his mother’s drive for routine and structure.  He also has his mother’s brains, no doubt, a very smart kid and her compassion.  Coop, well Cooper is starting to show his personality and it’s very interesting.  For starters, he’s absolutely not interested in help.  He’s pretty content except when he’s hungry and, unless he’s particularly bothered, can pretty much resort to crawling around the house entertaining himself.  He’s a definite “roll with the flow” kind of kid and he smiles all the time.  He’s just starting to play with Ry and I think they’re showing signs of being the best of friends.  It’s hard to see too many years down the road but that’s why this blog has been so awesome, I’ll look back at this picture in three years and can pretty much pinpoint the month that the boys started playing together… considering I can’t remember where I left my shoes when I got home from work today, I’m really thankful for technology.   

As a parent, I spend a lot of time thinking about how my children will turn out.  Will they be a doctor or a lawyer?  Maybe they’ll follow in mom’s footsteps and be a teacher?  Maybe they’ll follow dad’s footsteps and be a computer geek.  All I know is that it seems a lot of these things will be out of our control.  All we can do is give them the best environment and experiences and hope for the best.  On the other hand, some of it has to be genetics.  Which brings me to tonight’s picture.

Cooper was so proud of himself as he pulled his body up to a standing position on our coffee table.  I was playing around with the settings on my phone and found this vintage photo setting.  It hearkens back to the days when disagreements were settled by a duel and whiskey was served for breakfast…okay, I know a few of you still follow that second rule.  So, after looking at the picture for a moment it hit me!  Put a few poker chips on the table and Coop is actually not proud he’s standing but rather pretending he’s going “all-in”!  Then it hit me, there’s a long line of gamblers in our family.  If you don’t believe me check out the Austin family tree sometime… it’s in the blood!!

It was 2001 and the Yankees were playing the Diamondbacks in the World Series.  A friend of mine had arranged for me to get two tickets to Game 4!  My grandfather and I headed down to the House that Ruth Built for a chance to see history in the making, we did!  Bottom of the ninth and the Yankees are down by two and there’s a 0-0 count with two outs.  Tino Martinez comes to the plate.  Let me be clear.  I hated Tino Martinez.  He was the man who came to New York to replace my hero, Don Mattingly, and did so in amazing fashion.  By the time 2001 rolled around, most New Yorkers had forgotten Mr. Yankee and had embraced Tino Martinez. I digress.  Long story short, for those who don’t remember or don’t care, Tino hits a home run and ties the game.  The Yankees go on to win.  Rewind to the bottom of the seventh.  My grandfather taps me on the shoulder and says “hey, let’s go down behind home plate so we can get closer to the exit and try and beat the traffic.”  We head down there and we start talking to two NYPD cops.  These two guys thought it was awesome that my Grandfather and I were there together.  Ahhh.  Baseball, the one American generational gap builder!  So, again, long story short, a young security guard comes up to us and tells us we need to move along or we’ll be asked to leave the stadium.  The cops turn to her and point to me and says “you come with me, gramps, follow him.”  I stood with one partner while the other brought my grandfather two rows behind home plate to sit next to Joe Torre’s mother!  Amazing.

So, why am I so sad to hear of legendary Oriole’s manager Earl Weaver passing away?  That amazing sports story is trumped by an earlier one.  We’re in the Yankee Stadium parking lot, waiting by the giant bat to meet my friend who had the tickets.  While we’re waiting, a man and his son come running up to my grandfather with a ball and pen.  “I know you,” laughed the man, “I know you!”  My grandfather, somewhat stunned, says, “Son, I think you’re mistaken.”  “I know you,” continues the man, “You’re Earl Weaver!!!”  “No,” laughed my Grandfather, “I’m not Earl Weaver.”  Of all the memories that day, seeing a stranger hold my grandfather in as much esteem as I do, even for a second, was totally cool and burned in my memory bank forever (I hope.)

So, a tip of the cap to a man who added so much to baseball.  Another tip of the cap to a stranger who made a young man so proud and a tip of the cap to the man who continues to make that young man proud.

It seems this time of year is rough.  It’s that time after the snowy white holidays and before the warm sun reminds us it’s okay to live in the Northeast.  The cold winter winds have also brought with them a multitude of coughs and colds.

The winter has also brought with it the discovery of CHEERIOS!  Really, there is only one real cure for nasty colds and that’s CHEERIOS!  However, I would caution you not to eat one out of these hands…

Happy New Year!  2012 brought so many good and bad memories but the arrival of Mr. Cooper has left me with the feeling that 2012 was a great year.  It’s amazing though, as I sift through the various social media outlets with everyone else’s opinions on 2012, I’m taken by how different people’s lives were/are.  My friend from college lost his mother this year to cancer, newspaper headlines were awash in tragedy and others lost their jobs and started new ones.

It’s my hope though that some real good came come out of social media.  For starters, I’m hopeful that those who found 2012 to be a painful year can look to their family and friend’s posts to see what a good year can look like.  Likewise, though I’m flying high in 2012 with a new addition to the family, it’s important that I keep my feet on the ground and take a look on the blogs and posts to see just where life can knock you down….and why it’s so important to get back up.

A quick side note to all my employers who share my Facebook account… these beer bottles are all empty cans we shipped in for the picture and that is NOT a beer pong table and I AM 33 years old….

I’m old.  I spent a few minutes this afternoon looking at photos of Ryan when he was 8 months old and it hit me, I’m old.

For those who have kids, it seems the day to day can sometimes move so slowly… the struggles to get them ready to go out of the house, struggles to get them to eat (at least in our case) and the struggles to teach them to behave. All of that and then I take a look back at what seems like yesterday and it hits me!  I’m old. Before I know it, I’m going to look up and the boys will be in college and I’ll be asking “where did my little boy go!”