Favorites Right Now: Top 5 Songs

My choices for favorite songs always seem to change, but here's a list of my favorites right now:

• "Anna Molly" by Incubus
• "Between The Lines" by Stone Temple Pilots
• "The Pretender" by Foo Fighters
• "Tonight" by Seether
• "Numb" by Linkin Park

What are your favorite songs right now?


















Please feel free to share your favorites right now in the comments below.

We're Talking About Swim Lessons

My daughter is two years old and will reach the "oh my goodness I can't believe she's going to be three!" very soon. My son is 15 months old and we recently signed them both up for swim lessons.

They've had a limited amount of time in pools before the swim lessons, and they were all positive experiences for them. Marshall seems to love the water from start to finish without any hesitation. Adelaide seems a little more cautious at first, but as soon as she gets warmed up, she will start to jump off the sides by herself.

Let me repeat that. She can jump off the side into the water, BY HERSELF!! Even Marshall steps off the side while holding hands and loves every second of it.

Swim lessons have made me quickly realize, if I hadn't fully grasped it before, that my wife and I have two kids and not two babies. We've known for a while that Adelaide is a "big girl," but we recently talked to her about how Marshall is now a toddler.

I know where the time went, because Meghan and I do as much as we can to be involved with every second, but where did the time go?!? Swim lessons just happen to be one of those things that make me stop to think and hope I've done everything to this point to make sure they know that their dad loves them as much as possible, and hope that I haven't missed anything.

They've had a couple of swim lessons so far. Marshall seems to enjoy going off the side and being submerged. Adelaide likes swimming by herself and even floating on her back; all with a floaty strapped around both of them of course.

It's been almost three years since Meghan gave birth to Adelaide, and now, we have two wonderfully enthusiastic, fun, and loving kids that go to and enjoy swim lessons. They're not super heroes in the making. They're already there.

Two of a Kind

The past four years have included a marriage and two children. I am lucky to consider my life-long partner to be my perfect match, and I am still amazed at how lucky we are with our children.

One is two years old and the other is one year old; more specifically, our daughter will be three next month, and our son is 15 months old.

It's pretty amazing to think of how much has changed in such a relatively short amount of time. Tonight for instance, Meghan and I watched as our two kids played together around a play-kitchen AND they both shared "food" with us as we had our very own tea party.

Adelaide made us "the best Golden Grahams," while Marshall continued to feed us a wide variety of plastic vegetables from a pink grocery cart. This fun interaction reminded us how much they mimic each other, and how much they truly appreciate each other's company even if they can't express it an absolute verbal way.

Marshall says momma and dada and nana and I'm so excited! Okay, so the last one isn't true, but his expression when he hears that his big sister is coming down the stairs is nothing short of pure joy, as he stands near the ottoman (our blockade for the living room), grunts enthusiastically, and bobs up and down with a gigantic smile on his face. It's amazing to see each morning, and it is almost every morning because he usually wakes up before her.

Now whether Adelaide wakes up before mommy or Marshall, she always asks where they are and why they are where they are. If they're still in bed, she'll ask why and then ask if she can snuggle with her mommy. If they're downstairs, we'll go downstairs, listen as Marshall waits for her to come down, and then ask to snuggle with mommy on the couch.

They both have favorite blankies; Adelaide's is homemade, pink, and covered with owls, while Marshall's is gifted, blue, and covered with tags. They love bringing it downstairs with them, most of the time, and sometimes wish they can bring it with us on our trips to the grocery store or anywhere else. It's okay, we have backup blankets in the car for them.

During any car ride, Adelaide will tell us what Marshall is saying; "Marshall saying, 'ma ma ma.'" Marshall will always look around his rear-facing car seat to look at Adelaide and laugh as she talks or makes sounds to mimic Marshall. They are their own "dynamic duo." They are Superman and Wonder Woman. They are Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. They are Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton. Granted, they're not old enough to understand or even say some of the things these people say, but the fondness for which they have for each other translates so well to such duos.

As Kirk and Spock were at the playground this past weekend, it was great to watch them both watch each other. She would go one direction and he would follow. He would go to another slide and she would want to follow too. They have created this fantastic bond and Meghan and I are so proud of it. They absolutely adore each other and we hope this connection will be a foundation for them to depend on each other as they get older.

Perhaps one day in the next year or so, Marshall will do something he shouldn't, and maybe, just maybe, Adelaide encourages this something. The hope will be that they have built such a solid friendship and bond that something like this (or something similar many years down the road) won't damage what has been such an amazing thing to watch; pure joy with each other's company.

My greatest hope is for them to depend on each other, learn from each other, and continue to build on their relationship and know that regardless of the circumstances, they will be there to help one another, and hopefully find a way to smile and laugh and realize what they have is exactly what they want with other friends.

As Picard and Guinan move forward, I cannot wait to see them smile and laugh more and more, and hope their bond continues to grow out of this world.

It Will Never Change

To my wife, Meghan, the love of my life:

You mean everything to me. Despite when I was younger, and often feeling like I would never find you, it happened. Maybe it was excellent timing, or we were just fortunate to have great friends that allowed us to get together on a fun, Wilmington Beach trip; granted, the first hotel and my sun burn did not forecast our inevitable pairing, but perhaps it explains the years in-between; it just took my skin that long to heal.

Our life together is amazing. I love you and I love that you love me. I believe our relationship is what has made two amazing kids (so far ;-D). They love each of us so much and they adore each other. It's what makes our lives exciting and new every day; we get to watch them grow and become who they will be with our guidance to make sure they understand right and wrong, to treat each other (and everyone else) well, and to let them know it's okay to be silly when they're happy or retreat when they're angry.

Being a parent isn't easy, and I'm glad that it isn't. I need to know that we're doing it right and I can't imagine doing anything less than taking the time to teach them how to be truly wonderful people. And maybe along the way, they'll pick up your wonderful smile, maybe a mix of our height, and my glorious eyebrows that need to be trimmed because boy! can they go in every direction, much like my hair when I wake up in the morning.

I guess the point of this is to tell you that everything was, is, and will be worth being with you. You are the moon to my night, the shade to the sun, and everything else that can possibly express how much you mean to me and will always mean to me. It will never change.

And maybe things will seem like they're tough all of the time, because the kids get sick, or the house needs repairing, or sometimes it's just a bad day; but I know, with everything in me, every single day will be easy in some way. It will be looking at you. It will be us looking at our kids. That's the easiest part. Loving each other will never waver and loving each other will be what gives us relief every day, because how can we not look at our kids at some point and just hold our breath while thinking, "They are amazing, and I didn't think it was possible to love anything more." And it's the same comfort I find when I look at you.

Our relationship grows each and every day as they grow, and we will adapt to what comes our way. We will smile, cry (because I am that funny), and we will enjoy each other's company and laughter. I know it will be worthwhile, because the years with you and the years with our kids have made it all so exciting and I'm so looking forward to more of it in the years to come.

I love you so much! I love Adelaide and Marshall so much! That's what matters.

The Start of Something Fun

As some of you may know, my wife Meghan is a teacher. She loves seeing her school kids' progress throughout the year, and it's great to listen to her talk about it because she gets so happy. Now that summer is approaching, she wanted to do something different to try and earn more money over that time. Seeing as she loves to teach, and she love love loves our two kiddos, she thought about becoming an Independent Consultant for Usborne Books.

I LOVE this idea! We wanted to get new books for the kids anyway, and this was the perfect opportunity to do that. We already had a couple of Usborne books, and the opportunity to do this seemed like perfect timing.

Meghan is very excited about doing this, because not only does it allow us to get some amazing books for our kids, we get to offer these books to our friends, family, and everyone else connected down the line. This seems like a really fun way to try and earn extra income for our family.

We have a site for people to search through our catalogue and order, but we also get to host parties. So you're saying we get to have fun hosting book parties with friends, family members, and anyone else that wants to attend, and this is part of the business?

And that's part of the reason why Meghan is so excited; we're starting our own business venture together. It didn't even occur to me until she mentioned it, and that's really cool. This adventure seems like a fun opportunity to share books with other people and offer some pretty cool discounts while we're at it. Plus, others can host book parties too.

Again, planning a party isn't necessarily easy, but I find it very entertaining. I like the idea of getting all of the little details together and seeing friends and family have fun together. Maybe we'll have a potluck dinner and door prize book party. Maybe we'll have a dessert and wine book party with episodes of "Friends" playing in the background. Maybe, just maybe, we'll have a book party wrapped around a game night.

Yes! Meghan has come up with a great idea for us to try and earn some extra cash, because overall we're really excited about getting to interact more with our friends all while sharing our favorite books. It sounds like a pretty sweet deal. Granted, this will take a lot of work, but that's not something we've really second-guessed. We'll try to put as much time and effort into this like any other thing we want to do well at; so here we are at the start of our very own business.

We're excited. We hope to earn some free books along the way; plus, we're thrilled that others have already offered to host, because hosting a party can get you free books and other special offers too.

Oh yeah, we had our first online book party tonight!



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