Category Archives: Baby Countdown

Baby J, JD, James Daniel – sup world

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Officially official as of May 20th, 2013 @ 7:00 p.m. on the nuts, comin in hot at 7 lbs 5 oz. with a length of 19.6″ and a delivery record of 1-0, James . . . Daniel. . . GoooOOooooOoOooN.

Some oblig mushy stuff I need to get down in writing  – I could not be happier. Emily was tremendous and after watching her go through that exhausting procedure I have no doubts that woman is going to be an outstanding mother.  All of my fam and fam-in-laws came to the hospital and it was so cool to have them there.

I’ll never forget the feeling of turning the corner, walking up to my mom and mom-in-law, only to have them both hug me as I announced the name / arrival of my healthy new son. Even the nurses sitting at the desk commented, “you guys are going to make us cry”. It was one of the happiest moments of my life.  Amazing grandparents, they are already proving to be /yoda.  Enough sappy stuff, onto a couple of pics from the first few days.

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Motherhood

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This year, mother’s day meant something a little different to me. My wife, will soon be a Mom and I, soon a Dad.  This will be the last year that I get to concentrate solely on my own Mom (you’ll still get lots of m-day love from me Mom don’t worry). Now I gotta start planning stuff for Emily until the kids are old enough to make their own macaroni cards and sub-par-but-you-pretend-its-delicious-breakfasts.

Sunday’s weather was 60s with both wind and sun ++  It was perfect for ol’ hotbody here but Emily was actually chilly at times. Alicia marinaded these DELISH chicken kabobs (with rosemary which I usually am anti, in this case it was stoops good) and seasoned potots. Emily and I brought Breyers (Byerly’s) sunflower seed pasta salad and a veggie boat. For once, it was nice to just be with family, no busy crowded restaurant for brunch.

I took a few pics of the family and I suppose if all goes well, this will be the last ‘gathering’ we have with just five Goons. . .   dgDOTcom get ready to be polluted with babby pics ++

Mom’s day celebratory images here:

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Ask and you shall receive

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So I’ve been slacking major, thanks Alicia for calling me out.  Emily’s body is pretty much reach to deliver and here comes the waiting game.  A couple of update pics of her pregnetsee:

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Final thoughts before I am officially a dad:

  • Is my son going to have my awesome good looks, athletic talents and charm?
  • Emily has been an absolute warrior throughout this pregnetsee, could I be any more fortunate? <3 wifey
  • That first week home with our son is going to change my life, I am ready for a major life change and I could not be more excited
  • I hope to remember all the sound advice I’ve been given about parenting, fatherhood, etc..
  • Emily and the pets are our own family now, but some see that as crazy talk. Having a child really officially cements the ‘family branding’.

 

Tee minus eight days until due date . . . my cell phone is on and I am ready to leap into action. Game on.

Norf Shore

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Couple weekends ago (I know, I’m slacking) Em, Step, Alicia, TaterTot and I headed up to that North Shore.  BigBernie made the trip for us and it may have been one of, if not the, most beautiful drives I’ve been on.  I’ve been been up there before but the weather changes almost ever hour, the lake is massive, and the forestry / surroundings are quite enjoyable.

The four of us ponied up and stayed at a rent-a-cabin that was basically plopped on top of a mountain overlooking Superior. The driveway was the steepest grade BigBernie has ever climbed, I shit you not, 40-45 degree incline – #NBD. The cabin was so cozy and high quality. If I recall, the visitor log had entries starting in 08-09 so it was fairly new.

Emily shot a gun for the first time. It was tremendous. She is actually quite the marksme…markswoman? First she started on Step’s scoped .22, basically a pea shooter.  It was quite a jump from that to the .20 gauge but she knocked down a couple clays, did a happy dance, and was only reminded a couple times ‘muzzle awareness Em!’  Once she got all thuglife on us with that 9mm, jaws started dropping. I don’t know what to say, I am not a horrible shot, but I certainly aint like her, ya heard?

Speaking of how awesome Emily is, what a gal she was to spend the weekend up there stone sober while the three of us just drank our eyes out.  I gave a toast of recognition to express my gratitude to her but it needs to be said again. Thanks darlin.

Alicia and Adam brought up raclette for dinner, that was stoops delish. Raclette may be one of my new favorite things and if it weren’t for the fact that the last thing the Goon household needs is another sporadically used cooking appliance, I’d book it.  To those who’ve not yet treated yourself to raclette, don’t think about it, just do it.

Step and I hit up that sauna big time Saturday night. At the hottest, the thermo was reading 190 degrees. After boozing all afternoon / night, the sauna is crucial to sweat out the booze.  On a side note, I am so f’n glad to have Step as my sisters bee eff. I think of him as a brother and he’s just such a damn good guy.  All my friends get along with him, he’s always ready to shweel even if he’s hungover, and I like to think we’re similar in sense we both work hard / play hard.

Anywho, pics of our stay here:

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Unc is old

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Ever since I was just a young lad, I’ve always looked up to my Unc (Mom’s brother) the police officer.  He was such a cool dude, seemed to do well with the ladies, had fun / debaucherous friends and gifted me baseball card boxes for Christmas. This weekend we celebrated his 50th birthday. Hot damn.

Fifty.

How did he get so old so quick? I guess I shouldn’t talk being that I am *gasp* one year away from the big three oh.  For his fiftieth, I wanted to make absolutely sure his present was not a let down and this was not an easy task. I found that a fifty year old with a wife and two kids doesn’t really ask for / need much (guarantee this won’t be true when I am fifty. ooompsk)

After conferring with auntie she told me he loves Chipotle when he’s rollin in the black and white. I was hesitant.  “Chipotle?” I thought. . . seems so cheap and not personal but then I thought back to my main objective and I ask you Internet, “Who wouldn’t want $50 worth of burrito monies”?  It will absolutely positively for sure get used! “Gee, I had a great birthday but I wish I wasn’t gifted so many free burritos from Chipotle” – said no one ever.

Happy Birthday Unc.

A few pics:

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Preggers

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So my wife is preggers and I was originally looking forward to blobbing the crap out of the pregnancy but honestly *I am rigorously knocking on wood here* it’s been extremely smooth sailing thus far.  I was anticipating the worst and I don’t know if my wife is just cowboy’n up big time or if she’s just really fortunate.  I’d like to think a little of both. I mean, she’s married to me AmIRite?

Either way, Em has a good size bump now so I think I’ll start taking pics every other week to document the progress. I mean, you only have your first kid once, let’s make’r a good one.

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Another the baby note, the nursery is done, donezo, finito. I remember the day Emily found out she was pregnet, I could see the look in her eye that she was already all antsy in her pantsy to plan for the nursery.  A week later or so she had color samps and wanted help planning at which point I did everything I could to convince her to wait till we found out the sex.

She obliged me, thank goodness.

Fast forward to now, after she only asked me a hand full of times “do you like this” or “would you choose this or this” the nursery couldn’t have turned out better. It’s not at all lame over the top baby blue bleh and I truly love how it turned out. Check out Larry’s new digs:

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Out with the old, in with the new

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So tax refunds are here and it’s something I look forward to each year.  It’s like a get-out-jail-free card to spend a bunch of money that isn’t ours, even tho it is.  Here’s to psyching out myself.  #Ooompsk.

I’ve been into (read: like to fiddle with and pretend I’m all pro n stuff) photography since I got my first SLR in ’08.  The ol XTi is a great camera still however, it was time to step up my game a bit. I didn’t really want a new camera at all but having a baby coming up, I needed to get a new one, you know, for the baby. . .

Here is the first test shot – ridic detail:

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Snow

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It snowed about 4″ this morning. I shoveled, drove into work, and it is still snowing. Have I mentioned how ready I am for spring yet?  This spring is going to be so f’n ridic with the hog coming out of storage, and projects that need to get done before May /  Emily and I counting down the weeks until my son’s birthday.

This winter, some of my co-workers set up an open hockey schedule.  Considering I would have had to purchase a bunch of hockey gear to play, yours truly volunteered to be goalie (and borrow pads).  Here is a summary in bullet list form of my short goalie career:

  • Game one
    • Most were impressed that I “appeared” to know what I was doing.  Thanks youtubes
    • I managed to stop a couple while waving my stick in the air. Yea.
    • Didn’t pull my groin. *phew*
    • Had my pads on way too tight, couldn’t even stand up for the whole time (yes it was embarrassing kneeling on the ice waiting for the puck to come to my end)
    • I was extremely sore
  • Game two
    • Much better in terms of pads & dressing goes.
    • Very few got past me (there wasn’t as much action on my end)
    • People were starting to refer to me as an “adequate goaltender”.
  • Game three
    • I absolutely sucked.
    • I managed to let in moar than twenty goals *smh*
    • It’s like I had a sign that said “free goals – shoot into five-hole”.
    • It was a very dark time for me as a goaltender
  • Game four
    • My glove was hott hottie hot.
    • I stopped three breakaways in a row.
    • Considering we were short on numbers and my team played little defense, I did some major work in the net.

Here is a gallery of shots (photos courtesy of the lovely Courtney Anderson @CocoAndTheShow):

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