Thank You Budding Readers!

I absolutely love to read and I always have since I was a kid. I love losing myself in a book and following the twist and turns of the story. I have bookshelves full of my favorite books that I have read and will re-read. I held out a long time against e-readers, nooks, and kindles because I am an old school guy. I love the feel of a real book. I love how your favorite books’ pages are yellowing from age or dog-eared from the last time you read it, but because I lack both the funds and the space to build a personal library in my house I succumbed to technology and L Bird bought me a Kindle for Christmas a two years ago. In just two years I have close to 100 books on it.


I think my love of reading came from my Grandma Wicks. She died when I was very young, but I do have a few hazy memories of her and our short time together. I know that she spent a lot of time with me on my ABC’s, counting and reading and I think that really started the spark for reading. Then as I got older, I really have to give credit to my Aunt Georgia and Uncle Mark. I think on a few occasions I was their “test kid” before they had their own children. I went and stayed with them a few times and they took me to Shakespeare in the Park and other art events, but during these visits I think that they really realized who I was. They saw that I was this undersized, nerdy kid with glasses that sort of liked sci-fi, so Georgia introduced me to Piers Anthony a science fiction writer and kind of fanned the flame for my love to read. They got me books instead of toys for birthdays and Christmases and when we got together she would draw me into discussion about what I had read because she had read the same series. It was really great to be able to discuss what I was reading with someone who had also read the book.

Now that I have children of my own I am trying to pass down the old school art of reading books to my girls. A Bird has a book shelf that rivals mine, she has books from when she was a toddler to kindergarten age books. So there are chewed on board books to some of her first chapter books in the Mr. Putter series and the Poppleton The Pig series. The school has a large reading curriculum even for kindergarten, so we read to her 25 days of the month, and she routinely has reading homework books that she has to read to us every night. It’s amazing to see how much she can already read and read with comprehension. So I hope that she will find a genre of books that really excite her so she can really fall in love with books.

I want the same for Nat and this is the real reason for this post. I want to give a huge THANK YOU to the Budding Readers Program. This is a wonderful program that puts books into the hands of parents to start reading to their infants and children to instill a love of reading in them. Reading to your children gives them skills and a leg up on learning that will only help them as they grow older and make their way to adulthood. The other day a woman who works with Budding Readers came into the bank where L Bird works and was asking about Nat, then she gave L Bird a card to fill out for the program. This woman came back with a bag of books for Nat and even a large hard cover Disney Princess book for A Bird. All of the books were free to us, just so we can read to our girls. The program is just awesome. If you want to find out more about them please check them out, http://buddingreaders.org/

Well, that’s enough for now, we’re off to read some of these new books. Enjoy!

What I have learned these past 14 years...

Yesterday, L Bird and I celebrated 9 years of marriage together. This fall we will have been together for 14 years, that’s right 14 years! Almost 40% of my entire life has been spent with L Bird, crazy right? But I digress, so last night my father and stepmother came down to watch the girls so L Bird and I could go out to dinner. We went to our favorite restaurant, stuffed ourselves on fried pickles, schnitzel, and giant mugs of beer and glasses of wine, then came home singing along as loud as we could to any awful song on the radio, yep I’m looking at you Taylor Swift.

(On a Taylor Swift side note, maybe she should take a good long hard look at herself before writing another heartbroken song and realize maybe it really is her that is the problem.) We got home and got both girls to bed and still managed to be in bed by 9:15PM, I know right? How lame are we that being in bed before 10 pm is the greatest gift a person could get? But all in all it was a very good night.

This morning on my way into work I thought about all of the things L Bird and I have learned about each other over these past 14 years. The list is huge and includes things like L Bird will leave me to my certain death if a tree comes crashing down but will take the time to grab a stuffed rabbit as she flees the room. It also includes things like L Bird loves to bake and entertain because it gives her an opportunity to make “snacks”.

But there are bigger things I have learned along the way too. Things that have helped us along the way like making sure to spend time together and time apart too. I love when we are all together or when just L Bird and I are together. It’s time when we can connect and talk, it’s time we can relax and be ourselves completely and that is a liberating feeling. But there are also times when taking the time to do something on your own is very helpful too, even if it is just for a few hours. Having kids is one of life’s greatest gifts, but it is also a struggle because if you are not careful you can lose yourself while caring for everyone but you. So when L Bird wants to run out to the outlet mall or run errands without having the girls underfoot I take over and let her have some time away, then she does the same for me if I want to hit up an auction with Radtke for a few hours. It’s this give and take that has helped us stay sane when we need a little break.

Another thing I have learned and still have to keep working at is making sure that I maintain eye contact while listening and conversing with L Bird. I notice that in this ever evolving technological age more and more people, especially teenagers are constantly focused on texting and IM’ing rather than face to face interaction. But where it falls into play with L Bird and I usually goes like this, I will be sitting on the sofa screwing around on my phone while L Bird is talking to me, then she will get mad at me and accuse me of not listening because I am not making eye contact with her. The same is true when I am trying to talk to her and she sits down to the computer to check facebook and just nods and “uh huhs” through the conversation. It makes both of us feel like what we have to say is not as important as someone else’s useless status update on facebook. So I know that we both try hard to make and maintain eye contact while speaking because we do truly value what each other has to say.

Finally, I have learned that I need to have some sort of physical contact every day from L Bird. I’m not talking anything gross or sexual, but physical contact that conveys the warmth we have for each other. Even if it is as little as a kiss hello or a longer hug, that’s enough but when we don’t touch because we get caught up in making dinner or running baths for the girls or whatever else comes up I realize that I get moody and sulky. I like to think that it is the same for her too, because there have been days we get caught up in the little things until it’s bedtime and then I get “Do you realize that you have not kissed/hugged/touched me all day?”. Its then that I feel awful because I know how that makes me feel so I try to take the time every day for some contact and time together.

I could ramble on and on, but I just wanted to share a few things I have learned so take it for what its worth. Enjoy your time because it is gone all too soon.

Life is so rushed...

When L Bird and I first had A Bird and we were struggling with things like bedtime routine, crankiness and bouts of crying we always heard things like “If you think this is bad, try having 2 kids!” or 3 kids, blah, blah blah from the parents of multiple children. I always blew it off and quit asking people their opinions because I didn’t want to hear how tough it was to have multiple children when I was just asking for advice on raising one. Now that we have Nat, I truly realize that having more than one kid is tougher than you think. With two of them, you now have to fill two kids’ needs rather than solely concentrating on one and in that process there is little to no time for yourself. I mean that is what parenting is, right? Devoting your life to your kids and guiding them through the pitfalls of childhood so they can become successful adults and start the process over with their own children while still managing to spend your limited time together with your spouse. I think that is truly great and I wouldn’t change it, all I am saying is it is HARD.


Everything is so rushed now and it is rushed on both ends. I think L Bird and I make a phenomenal parenting duo because we agree on most things when it comes to parenting, but we do end up doing a lot of stuff separately. I start my day early and leave for work long before the sun is up or anyone else for that matter, so L Bird has the task of getting both girls up, fed, clean, dressed and ready for the day. She really is a super woman because I don’t know how she does it and still manages to make it to daycare for A Bird’s bus and to work on time. Then I catch afternoon duty, I get out of work run home quick to let the dogs outside, while they are outside I bring in firewood and get a fire started so the house is warm when everyone gets home. Once the fire is going pretty good, I head out to pick the girls up from daycare. I make sure to get the run down on when Nat ate last and when her diaper was last changed as I pack her into her snowsuit and into the carrier, then I gather up A Bird and her school bag and we hit the car running. On the way home I quiz A Bird about her day and ask her about homework. Once we get home I get A bird set up with a snack, then unpack Nat from her layers of snowsuit and try to start dinner. While dinner is cooking, I hold Nat and try to keep her happy while helping A Bird with her homework, normally by the time that is finished dinner is done and L Bird is walking through the door. We all eat our dinners then ping pong back and forth between the two girls until its bed time and they are tucked into bed. Luckily for us we have always been schedule Nazis and a routine has been set for A Bird and is starting to be set for Nat. By 8:15 – 8:30pm the girls are tucked in and sleeping, hopefully.

Now for the next hour I get to spend time with my lady. This is the magic hour, the time when we can settle in, relax a little bit and talk about our days or lately watch Duck Dynasty and laugh with each other. It’s easy to get so caught up and stressed out in all of life’s day to day tasks that I forget to give L Bird a hug and a kiss until we go to bed. It’s tough when you get so frazzled that you lose the physical contact with the person you love, and that’s something I am trying to work on, to at least greet her warmly when she gets home even if I’m stressed out.

That is my life right now, it feels tough now that we are going through it but I know that kids just grow so fast and in the big picture you really only have them for a moment in time. So I try to remember that as I can barely keep my eyes open at 8:45 in the evening or when I feel like I am scrambling at such a fast pace that my mind is going to crash. I am trying to take pleasure in the small things to balance how frantic I feel lately. Little things like “talking” with Nat while she practices her voice cooing and vocalizing, sitting next to A Bird and reading to her or just talking to her about her day and her friends, and getting some adult interaction with L Bird before bed. Real simple pleasures like a hot cup of black coffee and a new Grit magazine on Saturday mornings.

I know in a blink of an eye, the girls will be older and we will be trying to figure the next portion of our lives together. It’s just trying to balance it all and still enjoy our time together. Well, I’ve rambled on so long I forgot what my original point was, so on that note it’s once more back into the fray…