This is how long Jackson has been in my life. He has changed me in more ways than I can possibly image. Becoming a father has been one of the best things to ever happen to me.

It has taught me to look at the world in a completely different way. It has taught me to never, ever, take the little things for granted. Simple things like my son’s smile or his giggle can totally turn my day around.

Being a father has also help set some new priorities in my life. No longer do I buy things for myself. Instead, I spend the majority of my money either on him on on things to make our life as a family better together. A perfect example of this would be out new living room. We’ve spent the last 2 months remodeling the living room to make it a proper area for our son to grow up and play in. The night I got done with the floor, Jackson ran around and played on it until it was time to go to bed. See him laugh, play with all of his wheeled toys without the constraint of the old, nasty carpet, made all of those house of cutting Pergo and ripping up old flooring worth every second.

When I met Jess, she made me a better man. When Jackson was born, he made me the man I’ve always wanted to be.

Sunday was my first day off in over a week. Jess and I made no plans. I am really glad we did this. For this first time in literally months, we all spent a lazy Sunday in the house. Here’s how it all went down.

I was first up at 7:30am. I have no clue why my eyes popped open so early since I was up watching movies until about 2am, but whatever. I laid in bed enjoying not having to be anywhere for about 30 minutes before I heard Jackson get up. Much to my surprise, he was actually calling out for dad instead of mom. Feeling quite good about that I jumped out of bed and got my little man out of his crib. After having his morning milk, we got dressed, grabbed Loki, and headed off the Buttonwood Bakery for some freshly baked morning goods. After leaving with 2 full bags of pastries (all for under $7!) we came home, ate, and watched Thomas. About 30 minutes later, Jess woke up and had a belated breakfast with us. We all just spend the next few hours watching TV and playing. Then around 11:30am, Jack was getting tired, and to be honest, so was I. Not needing to be anywhere, and the weather outside far from ideal, Jackson and I took a 2 hours nap together. This was not only the first nap I have taken (non-sick) in months, but this was only the 2nd nap I have ever taken with Jackson since he started walking. We had a great nap!

After our nap, we played for a few mote hours, watching ‘The Other Guys” on Netflix, and had a fun afternoon. After the movie, I started making dinner for everyone. I was really looking forward to this since this was the first time I have been able to make dinner for my family in weeks. It’s been so hectic lately we’ve been eating take-out a lot more then we should be. Dinner tonight was a ham steak with a brown sugar glaze, and home fries. Dinner as always, was delicious.

After dinner we played some more, gave Jack his bath, and put him to bed by 8:45pm. It was around this time that I finally decided to take a shower myself. Since I didn’t have to rush, I was finally able to do something I have been wanting to do for a week now — shave! After that, I spent some time with Jess until about 10:30pm, and I headed up to my lab. I’ve been here ever since talking to friends, working on stuff for Growing Up Geek, and just relaxing some more. I’m forcing myself to stay up late tonight since I am heading to Gamestop tomorrow night after work to pick up my copy of ‘Mortal Kombat’ at the midnight opening. Once home with my prize, I’ll be playing it until about 3am-4am, at which point I’ll get a few hours of sleep before going back to work at 10am. Should be a fun night!

My Old/New Face

Even since I was sick with pneumonia a few weeks ago things have changed. I’m not sure if it was the fact that I was really scared about my health for the first time in my life (not being able to catch a breath for 6 hours will do that to you!) or the fact that I was literally stuck on the couch for a solid week, but my outlook on life drastically changed.

Before then, I tried my best to try and find more and more time for myself. I just wanted to head upstairs and be on my computer, or sit on the couch alone and play my PS3. But 3 key events happened that week that really woke me up. One of them was when I was up for 30 hours, by myself, trying as hard as I could to breathe. As I sat on the couch gasping for each breath, I could only think about all the wasted time I’d spent sitting on my computer doing much of nothing. The second event was that same period when I was lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to all kinds of machines, and not feeling any better. The last time I was like that in the summer it was because of dehydration and heat exhaustion. I knew all I needed was some fluids and something to get rid of my damn dehydration induced migrane. Everything would be fine in a few hours. This time lying there, I wasn’t so sure about that. The last and final thing happened several times. Jack wanted me to play with him and I literally did not have the energy to. I could see the disappointment in his little eyes and I knew that I had caused him to be sad. That was one of the worst feelings in the world. If I had just listened to my wife and gone to see the doctor a few weeks prior like she nagged I would not be in the situation. Things had to change.

And things did change. As soon as I got better it was like a switch flipped in my head. I was all about being the best father. It was all about my son. And you know what? It’s the best thing I think I ever could have done. Jackson and I now play at every opportunity, we have our own little ‘gags’ we do together, and best of all, I see happiness in his eyes. I can’t believe that I didn’t want to spend every minute I had with him before my sickness. I was a damn fool. My computer will be there 3 years from now. Jackson, as he is today, certainly will not be. He’s changing everyday and I don’t want to miss a single minute of it!

So Jackson’s latest fascination is with Thomas The Train. He watches it constantly, comes running when he hears it somes on, and is captivated by every minute of the show. In fact, we even got him his first Thomas toy for Valentine’s Day, and I just got him a few Thomas shirts the other day which he continues to hug each time he sees one. A few weeks ago, we were in Phillipsburg to vist my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. While there, Thomas came on the TV and Jack when running. My sister-in-law Jenn asked if he liked Thomas. I told her that this was his favorite show in the world. She then told me a story that a full sized Thomas came to Easton last year. This lit up a lightbulb in my head.

Long story short, I ordered tickets today to take Jackson to see this in July.

I showed him this very video at dinner to see what he thought. He was ear to ear smiles, jumping up and down, and point at the screen. This made my heart swell. If he was this excited to see a real Thomas on video, I can’t wait to see his reaction when he not only sees him in real life, but gets to take a ride on him as well.

Being a dad is the best thing that ever happened to me.