According to Fred

My grandfather fought in the Battle of the Bulge between Dec. 16, 1944 - Jan 25, 1945. He was a radio operator intercepting radio communications from anyone and everyone seeking intelligence. An avid musician, still playing music in his 80s, he discovered that nobody ever wrote music to honor those who fought in the Battle of the Buldge. So he decided one afternoon to compose something to remember the moment and his fellow troops. The result ended up being good enough for his band conductor to work with it to produce the Ardennes March. The video below is the first time it has been played in public.

Going to see Bon Jovi for the fifth time tonight. Headed to the United Center with Cyndi, her parents, my mom and her boyfriend. Should be a good time. Here’s a cool little widget from www.bonjovi.com.

Happy Birthday to me! 3 decades down, 7 more to go if not more. (I”m betting advances in medicine will let me live to 100 or more. )

Work today.
Dinner tonight with my wife.
Sister Hazel concert tomorrow at HOB.
And a 4 day weekend to boot.

No life reflection posts today. Just going to enjoy the moment…

It again was an early morning for daddy and Freddie. He was a rock star last night, however, as he slept from about 9:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. again. Cyndi asked me, “am I sleeping through his crying?” I replied “I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure I’d hear him and wake up.” So we have this good stretch of time when he sleeps, now we just need to move it about an hour so he can sleep when mom and dad want to sleep. Maybe we’re in a transition week where he sleeps longer? I don’t know, but so far it is working out. We’ll see if he can keep it up. Two nights doesn’t mean anything from what I understand.

He went back down after his 3:30 feeding, but I couldn’t fall back asleep immediately. My brain “turned on.” I’m sure you know that works. You just want to fall back asleep but then a side door opens and lets all these thoughts in. “What am I going to do today?” or work issues, or who knows, anything. Then just when I thought I was going to fall asleep the alarm went off for Cyndi. So after lying in bed a little longer I just turned on the TV to watch the news.

Sidebar: Will someone please, PLEASE, solve this transit funding problem.

I ended up sleeping from about 6:00 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. when Freddie got up again. I was hoping that I was going to be able to settle him down again like yesterday, but no dice. He was up. So we got up and played a little bit in the bouncy seat, we chatted (as best we could), and I made some coffee.

He finally went down for a short nap in the swing and now we/he is playing on the play mat. Next up…bath time. Daddy needs more coffee though.

UPDATE: 2:30 p.m. - We took our bath this morning. I got the infamous firehose during this time. I was waiting, waiting, waiting, and then just as I moved my hand out of the way….weeeeeeeeeeeeeee. He seems to like taking baths though. He didn’t cry and was all smiles.

Later we went and did a little shopping today to get out of the house. We took off after his 10:00 feeding and headed to Target and to Lowes. I’m pricing out how much it will cost me to finish off my garage (I have two walls un-finished/un-insulated). So far it doesn’t seem very costly if I use lower grade insulation. It is just the labor part that will set me back. Theoretically I can get this project done in a weekend as far as insulating the exposed walls and drywalled. But the finishing off of the mudding, taping, etc….that’s a different story. The good news is that Freddie slept most of the time while we were out. He needed a nap because he really didn’t go down this morning for all too long. Maybe 30 min. here and there.

Here is a video I shot this morning. One take, as is. I jumble my words a little, but hey, I’ve been talking to a kid for the last three days. That’s all we talk about, jumbled words to see if he will smile.

Cyndi should be headed home soon. School just got out. I have some things to clean up, so off to do chores and figure out what I’m doing for dinner.

So the week is half over and it seems to be flying by. Freddie did some major sleeping last night and didn’t get up from 10:30 p.m. last night to 3:45 a.m.. Both Cyndi and I were shocked. So instead of her nursing, I got up and fed him. It took me about an hour to get him fed and back down. I ended up sleeping until 7:30 after that though. My schedule finally caught up with me and this morning was hard to stay up. Coffee was a best friend this morning. I got up about 7:30 after hearing Freddie fuss. I brought him into bed with me (a habit Cyndi did every once in a while when she was home). I slept for another hour and got up at 8:30. Freddie slept until 9:30 a.m.. I fed him and we were on our way to a productive day. We played again on the play mat, listened to some music, and other stuff.

After a noon feeding we went out and ran some errands. I needed to buy some blank DVDs so I could back up all the photos I have of the little guy. Don’t want to lose all that stuff, especially after losing a laptop recently (hence the new purchase). Also, dad wanted to get some Starbucks. It was shortly after we returned home that Cyndi got home from work. I have to admit, there is something to be said about having dinner at 5:00 p.m. vs. 6:30 p.m. when I would normally get home. After dinner I did the “stay at home dad” stuff like laundry, dishes, and cleaning up some of the house as Cyndi spent some time with Freddie. Next thing I know it is only 7:00 p.m. and Shrek the Halls was on, which was cute to watch. So we now have a relaxing evening ahead of us and I’m going to relax before a last feeding of the night and get him ready for bed. Maybe we can go another long night of sleep before he gets up again. Tomorrow we’ll do another video. Not sure what else is going to be on the agenda. Wait, he just spit up pretty good. Sounds like a bath is in order for tomorrow.

Day two was similar to the beginning of yesterday, but the naps aren’t matching up the same way. He’s down for the count, right now, which is actually good because daddy got a new computer today and he wants to get it all set up before mommy comes home from work.

So back to what has happened so far. First, I completely missed the 1:30 a.m. feeding. Not quite sure how that happened. Oh yeah, I didn’t take a nap yesterday so I was beat tired by 11:00 p.m.. I did, however, get up very easily for the 5:00 a.m. feeding today. We did well. He ate his bottle and went right back down. I stayed up and watched the end of Mr. and Mrs. Smith on DVD until about 7:30 when Freddie got up again. We played on the toy mat again for a while and we had a conversation (as little as we could with coos, grunts, and smiles). I also realized this morning that my Canon SD450 can take small video files and that my Web host has a converter program so I can load Flash movies on my site. So this afternoon we may try this and see if we can get a quick 30 second movie up for you all to see.

I’m thinking it is time to get some lunch in me before he wakes up from this nap, which was a bear to put him down for. He tried to sleep after the morning feeding like yesterday, but as soon as I put him down–WHAM–the eyes opened up. So we stayed up for a while doing more stuff. I got to explain to him the concept of “unboxing” something new because the computer came.

Freddie’s gonna be due for a feeding himself when he gets up. Oh…and he’s up. Gotta go.

UPDATE: 5:30 p.m. - VIDEO TIME! I figured out how to upload and convert a video taken from my Canon SD450 point and shoot camera. So here is a short clip from this morning.

It’s 1:30 in the morning…do you know where your wife is? Well, this week, I get to find out as I’m starting week one of a two (separate) week stint of paternity leave. I’m going to memorialize it here with writings and photos.

Today my wife goes back to work after being off for the last 12 weeks. She has been a trooper dealing with our little one while I’ve been the one sleeping at night and going to work. She had the ever so sensitive ear (or I just deep sleep) and got to Freddie before I would even wake up. She never complained and was always looking out for my well being. Now it is my turn to get up and grab him before he wakes her up.

My duties actually began last night as I was put in charge of getting him to bed. Lately Freddie has not been very cooperative in the “going to bed” category. He wants to stay up and see Letterman or Leno’s monologue before hitting the sack. Last night was no exception. I fed him, tried to put him down, but the uncontrollable crying began shortly thereafter. He’s just tired, I know this, but he can’t seem to settle himself down yet. And it comes right out of the blue too. He’s quiet, you think you have it under control, then WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! Of course it doesn’t help when you are holding him at this time and he starts to squirm because without fail he will head bunt me in the chin, which now instead of being tired crying it becomes “Ouch!! My head hurts now!!! WAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!” I finally got him to sleep by 11:30 and in the crib.

1:30 a.m. rolls around and I hear him fussing. So I get up as my wife has told me that sometimes a pacifier works to settle him back down. Nope, not tonight. This time he is hungry. So I have to get my wife up (and this is the arrangement, I do the last feeding before bed, she feeds at the 1:30-2:30 feeding, I feed at 4:30-5:30 and the rest of the day until she gets home). I head back to bed to try to get a few more winks before the next round.

4:30 a.m. Freddie wakes up. I hear him breathing funny (daddy gave him a cold this weekend, so boogers are all the rage right now in his world) so I get up. Sure enough his eyes are open. I pull him over to the changing table to try to clear his nose out and he just doesn’t like that so early in the morning. So I stop, but he is also hungry. Which makes sense timing wise. So I take him out to get a bottle ready and again “WHAM!!” he plants his forehead into my chin. WWWAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! (Note to self: need to put more things on the walls so it doesn’t echo so much in the house.) I get him settled down and get a bottle made up. I feed him and get him back down. Whew…a few more hours before the day begins.

It is at this time that I start to write this entry. My wife comes in to iron her clothes and asks “why aren’t you in bed sleeping?” “I’m OK” I respond. “I’m normally up at this time.” “OK, you’ll learn though. Sleep is a commodity when you are watching him.”

Hmmmm…..she may have a point here. But I guess I’ll learn it the hard way.

It’s now 6:00 a.m. and I’m going to try to eat some breakfast and do some chores before he gets up at 7:30ish. I understand he takes another nap around 12:00 noon so updates will be coming throughout the day. Maybe…if I’m not sleeping by then.

UPDATE: 11:00 a.m. - Sleeping babies are good. We’ve successfully navigated the morning with some play time on the play mat, a morning feeding, getting dressed, and daddy successfully starting some laundry. Not in that order of course. He’s been down for about an hour now and I’m still trying to figure out how we got two hours off his schedule. Oh well. Dads always do it differently than moms right? In my downtime I have also started to process some of the photos I took over Thanksgiving weekend and started to upload them to my Flickr account. I have a few more to go, as well as a few from today I’ll add (and link to in this post). Something tells me I better get some food for myself before he gets up.

UPDATE: 7:00 p.m. - Mommy’s home now and we successfully made it through the afternoon. We got some more play time in. We watched a little Baby Einstein to get his color senses going. We got another nap in after his lunch feeding and we listened to some music. Overall it was a successful day. I even got dinner fixed without a hitch. Now it is time for the evening round where we can see if we can get him to bed at a reasonable hour to start it all over again.

UPDATE: 10:50 p.m. - Just when you thought the day was over, it really never ends.  Cyndi got to spend some time with Freddie when she got home today, but was so tired she went to bed at 8:30.  So I did the last feeding of the night, and put him down to bed around 10:30.   I’m sure he will be up again between 1:30 a.m. and 2:30 a.m..  Cyndi will do that feeding and I’l take any other interruptions over the night and the 4:30-5:30 feeding.  Coffee is already set in the pot for the early cup.  Now I just need to unwind so I can go to bed.  Sleep??  Who needs sleep??  Remember, America runs on Dunkin’. 

In the celebration of the birth of my son my wife allowed me to get a new toy–a Nikon D40. This entry level DSLR camera, also known as a prosumer camera, has brought out a passion that I never really knew existed–photography. I’ve always enjoyed taking pictures. I’ve had my fair share of 35mm cameras, and then I graduated to digital PAS over the last few years. After our Kodak PAS died, we got a Canon SD450. It is a great camera. 5 megapixels, large 2.5″ LCD screen on the back and easy to use modes. Outdoor shots were great. Indoor shots were OK, but who can really shoot great indoor shots these days? So back in June my sister-in-law told us her photographer bailed on her for her wedding and asked if I could shoot some shots. I only had my Canon SD450 at the time and found it a perfect opportunity to bring up my desire to “upgrade” to my wife. She agreed, reluctantly, but as long as I didn’t spend a ton of money. So after investigation of all the options out there, the Nikon D40 was it.

There are several nice things about the D40 that I like. The size, weight, and functions are perfect. Not overly complicated, but just enough to be able to do more than a PAS. While the D40 is only a 6.1 megapixel (yes, only 1 more than my PAS, but it is the lens that makes the difference), it takes a great shot. I don’t need resolutions that print out to poster size. The 6.1 works great for my max printing size of 13×19. The camera came with a 18-55mm zoom lens. It is a fine starter lens that gives the user a great set of options. I recently purchased a Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens lens that is a manual focus on my camera (um hello Nikon, we couldn’t get the auto-focus right on the technology here? It is CPU driven.) but is great for portraits and low level light. This is exactly what I need to take better portrait shots of my little guy, and family photos.

So back to the wedding. I got my camera in time to shoot the wedding. I must have taken close to 600 shots over the weekend. I was just trying to test out all the options on the camera. Admittedly I got a little trigger happy (had to test out the 2.5frames per second feature). Indoors was a little more of a challenge, especially in the church. I didn’t (and still don’t) have a separate flash. So I was using the built in flash which you can’t direct to bounce light instead of a head-on fill flash. The pictures looked good, but you can tell I need to work on my composition, depth of field, and framing. If I could do it over again I would have done a better job.

Since Freddie was born I’ve been taking pictures like a mad man. My wife can attest. However, she has finally started to pick up the camera too and shoot pictures of him when I’m at work. I get to come home to some pretty funny shots of his facial expressions and smiles. I’ve done a couple of photoshoots with him to test my portrait taking ability. My first session the shots turned out pretty good, but the feedback was nobody could believe he was only 2 /12 weeks old at the time because I left him in his clothes. The second shoot I had difficutlty with some of the lighting as I did it at night. Finally on my third attempt using natural daylight I got some really great shots. Minor Photoshop edits allowed me to produce these.

Photography has really become a hidden passion. I love taking shots and seeing what I can do as far as composition, framing, and exposure. Post production is definitely a challenge. I need to get a book on Photoshop CS2 and digtial photography. I also want to take a real photography class where I can learn more of the basic of photography, how to use my camera more (all those options and menus!), and get some homework to increase my skills. Let’s face it, it definitely takes a certain eye to take great photos. Just take a look at some of my cousin’s stuff at www.jonathansaruk.com. Now those are some amazing photos!

For more Fotos by Fred, you can visit my Photos page.

For many who already know, children are an amazing thing. What they say; what they do; how they grow; take on personalities; and more. As I get ready to have my own child (anytime now) I can only assume that raising a child is like a very large roller coaster.

I’ve been in the theme park for a while. I’ve ridden some other rides, but I’ve eyed this ultimate ride for a while. Nine months ago my wife and I decided we were going to ride this roller coaster. So we got in line. This line is a maze that zigs and zags within the structure of the ride. There are signs along the way that tell you approximately how long it will be before you get on the ride from that point, but it displays the time in how long you are in line vs. how long it will be until you are on the ride: 3 weeks, 12 weeks, 21 weeks, 32 weeks, 38 weeks, etc. You occasionally see people coming off the ride and they tell you how cool it is. “You’ll love, especially the first drop!”

So you stand in line. You get closer to the start and finally, about 2 weeks to go you actually get “on” the ride. You start up the hill to the first drop. It seems like one of the longest parts of the ride, though I’m told it is not. It is just the part that seems to take the longest. It is the anticipation of that first drop. At the top, you are at the hospital, in labor, and waiting to bring your child into this world. Then the fun begins with the long first drop. You pick up speed for the rest of the ride, eventually coming to an end some 18 or so years later when you go back into the theme park.

I’m just about at the top of the first hill. And it’s going to be one wild ride.

I know it is only preseason, but tonight the Bears take on the Colts in a Super Bowl rematch.  While tonight will not count on the season, it matters to us in Chicago.  So far, Rex isn’t all that impressive.  Bears D is holding up, but we need to step it up on offense.