Reflections On Fatherhood

Technically, this is my 2nd official Father’s Day. However, last year, I was a rookie dad still soaking in the concept that I was the father of a 2 month old baby girl. My Father's Day then was little more than a continuation of the swirl of events and emotions that I have been riding since the day Victoria entered my life and made me officially a dad. It was an acknowledgment into that wonderful fraternity of father figures, more than a celebration of any paternal accomplishments I've had up to that point. Now that I’ve had well over a year experience at this dad thing, I feel I can better appreciate exactly what it means to be a dad. I look at my daughter now, and reflect on how she was this time last year. In the past year, Victoria has learned:

• to sit up, crawl, pull herself up, stand, and now finally walk
• to climb stairs
• to clap
• to blow kisses
• to high-five
• to feed herself (or at least grasp a spoon and aim for the general direction of her mouth)
• to “talk”
• to open up a cell phone, put it up to her ear, and “talk”
• to identify eyes, ears, mouth, and nose
• to identify me and mommy
• that she can move one smaller object to help her climb onto one much larger
• that keys go in a door
• and others too numerous to list

To us grown people, they’re trivial things we do without thinking. To her, they’re major steps in her growth and development. To me, they’re windows to the person my daughter will be. (Heaven help my cell phone bill when she becomes a pre-teen!) I see how much she’s grown, and it boggles my mind that I have had a significant role in getting her to this point. It hasn’t been easy – the messy diapers, the food thrown on the floor, the tantrums when she doesn’t get her way, the sleepless nights – all of it, completely worthwhile for no other reason than those random moments when I am blessed with a smile, a laugh, a kiss, a hug.

To all my fellow fathers, have a wonderful day. Watch your children with reflective eyes today, see how much they have truly grown since they’ve entered your lives. That, my friends, is our real gift today.

This post has been cross-posted here

Catching Up, Again...

Random tidbits to bring the blogging world up to speed...

What do you do when you have a blog but haven't updated consistently lately? You agree to contribute to a 2nd one of course! I have been contributing to Parents2Parents, a blog started by my good friend Jen. It's just a bunch of parents sharing their parenting stories. Good stuff - check it out!

I'm officially at the half-way point in my effort to grow 10 inches of hair for Locks For Love. So far I've resisted putting it back into a ponytail, but with the summer heat coming around, I may have no choice. If the average growth of 1/2 inch per month holds, I'm looking getting my next haircut March 2009! My wife, who is also growing her hair out, has decided to donate hers instead to breast cancer victims. Obviously influenced by my mom's situation, but with the added benefit of needing only 8 inches. (If she cuts her hair short, she's at 7 already!)

Victoria continues to grow way too fast. She hasn't started walking yet, but has recently started taking steps. She has begun to say/understand the word "up" and even said my sister's name "Abbey" while we were up in New York.

I'm still working two jobs. Things have been slow lately at both, although there have been some real nasty computer viruses coming in lately at LCC that have been keeping us on our toes.

Tomorrow I get to go to Baltimore to see the Red Sox play the Orioles. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll get to see Manny hit his 500th HR.

Easter 2008

There are people in the Christian Faith who I like to call Bi-annuals - they only come to mass on Christmas and Easter. I think my family is unintentionally becoming the opposite. After missing Christmas Mass due to illness, we completed the bookend by missing Easter Mass. We got ready, hopped in the van, and headed onto the interstate to make our way to church. Along that interstate, we got a flat tire. A piece of metal was in our lane, and I thought I served enough to avoid it, but it just got the side of a back wheel and tore it up. By the time we got a spare on, Mass was over. Oh Well. We decided to use our time to visit baby Angelina and then on to the in-laws for Easter dinner. A strange beginning to the day, but a good ending.

Not Quite Dead Yet!

Yeah, so here I've been, constantly noting endless things to blog about in my mind, and yet not actually updating the blog in quite some time. What can I say, my life is apparently moving way to fast for me to document. I've been busy with work, obviously, and the rest of my time is usually quality time with Victoria and Meredith. Next thing I know, it's late and I'm too tired to blog. Let's try catching up a bit, shall we?

First of all, a belated welcome to the world to my niece, Angelina Faith, who was born February 26. My brother-in-law Paul and his girlfriend Ashley have a beautiful young daughter now. She's quite tiny, and it's amazing to see how my little Victoria is so much bigger than her cousin.

Speaking of Victoria, she's doing great. She's almost a year already! She's crawling around everywhere, including up the stairs, in the kitchen, etc. She can stand on her own, and walk when someone holds a hand. She even has about 6 or 7 teeth. She growing way too fast.

Meredith is doing good too. She's still working part time as a mentor, and has done an excellent job as a stay at home mother.

Work is going well for me, although Radio Shack has been very slow lately. LCC however is keeping me busy. I'm still growing my hair out for Locks For Love, and currently I'm about 4 or 5 inches in length. Not much else going on though. Baseball season begins soon, and I've got my fantasy teams set. Otherwise my life has been work, family, eat, sleep. Fun stuff.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This year I have a lot to be thankful for. In addition to my family, my friends, and my health, this year brought two profound changes in my life - a new job (two actually!) and of course, my daughter!

To all my friends and relatives, have a wonderful and blessed holiday. You have my permission to gorge yourself on turkey, yams, stuffing, and pumpkin pie!

Happy Anniversary!

I know, it's a bit cheesy to wish oneself a happy anniversary, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that today is our two year anniversary. To borrow from the last post, time does indeed fly. It really doesn't seem like its been two years since Meredith and I got married. I can still vividly recall that day as if it just happened.

Supposedly, the traditional 2 year gift is cotton, so I'm tempted to get her a box of Q-tips as a joke. Then again, one of her gifts will be a pair of really comfy slippers, so maybe that will count. Unfortunately, I have to work both jobs today, so our celebrating will be limited to a lunch date and whatever we can decide to do later this week. Regardless of what we do, it'll be special.

100th Post!

It occurred to me last time I updated this thing that this post would officially be my 100th blog post. Technically that's a bit off, since maybe 20 of these posts aren't really creations of my mind, just random quizzes and silliness to fill the time. Nonetheless, this is my century mark, and I have the urge to make it a special post. With that in mind, I have an announcement....

I'm growing my hair out again!

Those who remember me from my college days no doubt remember my trademark long locks, which went mainly down my back. Well, my father-in-law decided he was going to grow his hair for Lock of Love, and he talked my wife into doing it too. The two of them in turn talked me into it. I have to grow a minimum of 10 inches of hair. Right about now I have maybe an 1/8 of an inch.

And for the record, no, the fu-manchu isn't coming back too.

August 17th Takes A Breather

Few people know this, but August 17th is a special day in the Keppel household. It was August 17, 2005 when I moved to Virginia, months before our wedding. On August 17, 2006, Meredith and I found out we were going to be parents. That's two significant life-altering events occurring on the same day in back-to-back years. I couldn't help but wonder what could possible happen this year.

Absolutely nothing.

Not that I'm complaining. Tomorrow is a much more important day anyway.

Guardian Angel

God truly works in mysterious ways. Sometimes the most difficult times turn out to be blessings in disguise.

Last Autumn, I left my job as a teacher at Guardian Angel Regional Catholic School. My official story was that I left to find a more financially stable job that would allow my then pregnant wife to be a stay-at-home mom. While that's was definitely true, it wasn't the whole story.

Last July, the school got a new principal, Dan. Dan's job was to turn the school around and make it profitable, something the school had been struggling to due for a number of years. He had his own agenda, and this agenda completely changed the spirit and atmosphere of the school.

As for my role in this, he basically forced me out. When he came on, he was surprised to find that I was a full time, salaried staff member. Apparently, I wasn't on the budget for the school year. That, plus the fact I was not a licensed teacher, pretty much made me expendable in his eyes. He eliminated the computer classes I taught; He had me switch classrooms the same day as the school's open house; and generally assured my school year wouldn't be a pleasant one.

I left Guardian Angel with the hope that I could get a new job quickly. That didn't happen. Instead, my family and I had to endure 5 months of unemployment at a time what seemed the worst possible time - in the early stages of my wife's pregnancy. We got by due to various contract jobs and the generosity of our family and church.

Why do I bring this up now?

Goodbye Gaurdian Angel

I cannot fathom what I would be going through now had I stayed there this year. Limited monetary resources suck when you have a child on the way, but it would have been devastating had I lost my job now. Throw in the fact that my wife worked there to (she left due to medical reasons), and it's magnified that much more. I didn't know it at the time, but God was looking out for me then. My family is much better off now.

My heart goes out to the teachers (who are pretty much screwed since this happens a month before the school year starts) as well as the students and there families, who no doubt will find someplace else to learn, but it won't nearly be the same. Since I've left, I've run into many of my former students and their families. The things I heard that were happening to the school - teachers constantly fearing they'll get fired, students fighting and selling drugs, among other rumors - it would have killed me to see that place deteriorate so quickly firsthand.

Ironically - In Sunday's church bulletin, there was a blurb on how GARCS had raised $200,000 in funds this summer, and how they were even looking to hire a teacher.

R.I.P. Guardian Angel

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Shame on me for letting 2 weeks pass without a post! Memorial Weekend is going to be hectic, as Victoria is getting baptized Sunday. We been making the preparations for awhile, and the out of town guests start arriving tomorrow. My family will be here Saturday. Coincidentally, the baptism will be held at the Frontier Culture Museum, in the same pavilion Meredith and I had our wedding reception. (Just to clarify, Sunday is Pentecost in the Roman Catholic calendar, and my church celebrates each year by holding Mass in the local park, which was switched this year to Frontier. And no, we didn't realize it was Pentecost when we chose Memorial weekend to baptize Victoria - we just picked a long weekend so more out of town relatives could make it.)

In other news...

The first batch of birth announcements went out this week, although we still have more to order/send out.

Speaking of Victoria, she's doing very well and has grown quite a bit. I'm still working on getting more pictures online, and hopefully will be able to do that next week sometime.

Meredith is doing well. She recently went back to work part time at People Places, mentoring the two high school girls.

Work is going well for me. It's been 3 months already! The company is paying for me and some other techs to take a 6 week, Thursday night, non-credit course at the local community college that will prepare up to get our Cisco Networking Certification. I actually had my first class tonight. It was fun, if you enjoy setting up small networks fun of course.

No softball games to report. We had 2 rain-outs and one game I had to miss due to a prior engagement. Next week Tuesday is our next game, so I'll post about that one

And just because it's funny to laugh at things that look like dictators, I give you Cats That Look Like Hitler. They're cute in an evil sort of way!