It’s been 115 or so days since my last brief update. Freya turned 2 and a few days later we found out Jane is pregnant again.

[insert sound of record scratching]

Wait! What the!  Seriously, read it again. We are preggers with niño dos.

It’s a huge surprise given the difficulty we had getting pregnant with Freya, our first bundle of awesome. Initially the news hit me like a sack of fists because I was selfishly plotting to reclaim some of my own time since Freya now plays with her toys and crayons without needing constant 100% attention. But, I got over it and now I welcome the additional challenge that will be coming our way at the end of June.

I’ve already started annoying Jane with baby name proposals. It seems some of my name submissions like Incredible Hulk, Strawberry Applepie, Classy Champagne, Thebossame, Humberto Jr II or Magneto are not on Jane’s short list of certified good ideas. I’ll keep trying, though, maybe I can slip a good one in there when she’s sleepy. Regardless of our li’l buddy’s name, we’re going to make a good time of it.

We’ve started to prepare Freya for the experience by telling her that she will be a big sister and that Mommy has another baby in her tummy. Apparently she said that she will let the new baby play with her toys which is pretty effing cute. She’s such a bright little girl and I hope her incredible sense of calm happiness rubs off on her sibling. Meanwhile I’ve been thinking of Daddy and Freya activities that can continue after the new baby is here to be sure Freya doesn’t suffer from having all attention diverted from her to the new arrival.

This weekend I had one of those ‘run from zombies’ dreams. I distinctly remember shepherding Jane and Freya and some other tag-alongs into places that I thought would be safe for some period of time; running through streets, entering abandoned houses, climbing through tubes and vents into hidden structures. Each time we found a safe place to hide out we would be there for a while until someone made a loud noise or opened the curtains or something that would tip off the legions of undead who were hunting us. However, I never actually saw a zombie during the course of the dream.

Later, as I was thinking about what caused me to whip up this nocturnal dark fantasy I realized there may be a very real correlation between my task list and the slow, resilient pursuit for which zombies are so well known.

For weeks, months or years in some cases, I’ve had things on my task list that I keep running from because there are other priorities in life or I just don’t want to complete them. At some point I have to pick up whatever tools are at hand (chainsaw and shotgun, katana and length of chain, etc.) and strategically hit and run until it’s safe to rest.

Update the blog – *whack*
Mow the lawn – *smash*
Wash the dog – *blam*
Clean my office – *whapow!*

Off I go, wish me luck.

1. American Red Cross [link]

2. Bujinkan Disaster Relief Fund Raiser [link]
As a member of the Bujinkan community I want to offer this link to a fund raiser set up to donate money on behalf of the global Bujinkan community.

When we returned home, Freya practiced walking and I caught a few steps on video for everyone to enjoy with their mountains of candy. The quality is a bit crappy due to being captured with my cell phone and the lighting in our TV room needs some work.

Minutes after her arrival (Oct 27, 2009):

One year ago she was born and became very real to me, no longer an abstract idea but a very real, very small, human being. I’ve found myself in a strange haze of time dysmorphia as Freya’s birth seems like it happened yesterday while simultaneously seeming like many years have passed. I would blame sleep deprivation but, honestly, Freya was sleeping through the night (except when nursing, of course) soon after we brought her home. I lose more sleep because of my job than I do my daughter. but admitting that to other new parents makes me feel a little guilty.

Recently (Oct 06, 2010):

Skip ahead one year, add a bunch of coos and laughter a pinch of fussy baby stuff and we arrive back in the present. Over the weekend we had a small birthday party which Freya likely won’t remember but Jane and I appreciate the thoughtful cards and gifts she received from friends and family. In addition to a birthday celebration, it was a good excuse for us to socialize, which we don’t do often enough.

After the party died down, she stood up near her toybox with no support and did her little bouncy knee dance for what seemed like a long time before she plopped down on her butt and clapped her hands. An hour or two later she was hugging Jane and I stretched out my hand barely out of her reach and she took what I consider to be her first solo step as she bridged the gap between mommy and daddy. Soon, I fear she will be wreaking real havoc on our house as she runs from room to room bounding over baby gates putting metal things into electrical sockets.

I really hope she is more sensible than that…

Happy Birthday, Freya!

It has been several weeks and I think the emotional damage has healed enough that I’m ready to talk about what happened. Late Sunday evening I returned home after a day full of martial arts training in Seattle. Jane was ready for dinner and I suggested we try an Indian restaurant we had discovered in Winslow. I called in the order and, still wearing the pants from my uniform (with no pockets), I grabbed my phone and Freya and went to the garage. I placed my phone on top of the car, strapped Freya into her car seat, I hopped into the driver seat and off we went.

Two or three miles down highway 305 there was a strange woosh bang bang sound along the back of our car. Jane turned to me with a concerned look on her face and said “what the hell was that!” I calmly said “that was my phone flying off the top of our car and smashing onto the highway.” I’m pretty sure she didn’t believe me because I was not freaking out.

We turned around and there was my precious phone lying in the middle of the road completely ruined.

The next day I visited the local Verizon store, approached the counter and said “Hi, my phone won’t turn on and I’m wondering if you could take a look at it.” When I placed it on the desk, the gentleman behind the counter laughed and said “I think I might see what the problem is…” Then he verified I would have to play full price (nearly $600)for a replacement phone because I did not purchase insurance when I signed up for my plan.

I was heart broken thinking I would have to go back to a very basic piece of gadgetry until my plan would allow a discounted upgrade. Fortunately, I found replacement equipment on ebay for a fraction of the full purchase price. By mid-week I was back in action with a replacement droid, upgraded to os 2.2, installed flash player and my other apps – good as new.

The lesson: always change into regular pants with pockets before operating a motor vehicle.

Dear neglected blog, don’t take it personally. I’m just not an active blogger. It’s me, not you. I hope we can still be friends.

One and one half months since my last posting, how absurd. Here’s the short version of some family stuff.

Jane and Freya joined me on my latest work trip to San Francisco and our sweet little muffin was a fantastic flying companion. Our flight from SEA to SFO was delayed by one hour which mucked up her feeding schedule and put her in a foul mood as we were boarding but it was short lived.

This month (March), Freya has started crawling backward and is able to push herself up on her arms very nicely. My favorite progressions in her development, though, is her laugh. Last week as Jane carried her around the house, Freya was laughing about everything, it seemed like she was practicing for some hilarious event that will eventually occur in her life. I really should make an audio recording and post it.

Unfortunately, my clock reads 11:28pm and I need to finish some house chores before running off to sleep so I will end the post here. Perhaps I will make more of an effort at regular updates.

Tonight I ditched my (br)ipod and used my droid as my music player and a handy little app called “my tracks” to automagically record my run metrics. I know there are other smartphone apps out there that do similar tracking, the nike +, RunKeeper, LogaJog, etc. but this is the first variant I’ve used and I’ve fallen in love with it.

Before I step out the door, I load my tracks, tell it to begin recording and when I return I tell it to stop. Upon completing my recording I’m presented with the option to save my data to google docs. The app plots total time, moving time, average speed, minimum and maximum speed, elevation change, distance and will even create a google map. This is much better than manual tracking and I can see small improvements in my run times by looking at the data collected over the past two weeks.

GREAT SCOT! Has it really been almost three weeks since my last post?

What have I been up to? Let’s see…

• Work – Of course, work takes up a fair portion of my waking hours. I’m not going to ramble on about that here but I’ve been considering some ‘how I get things done’ posts in the near future.
• Sleep … well, not really but I’m fully aware that is an area for improvement. Four hours of sleep per night isn’t cutting it and I continually fall into this bad habit of sleeping less for some reason.
• Parenting – Freya is an amazing little bundle of squiggles. This week she has learned to make a bird-like shriek and sort of freaked us out the other day. Jane was holding her and she started to cry and kick around (typical baby stuff) then buried her face in Jane’s shirt and screamed. This new behavior had us worried for a few minutes until we went through our checklist of baby stuff.
  • Last nap? within the hour
  • Diaper change? just now
  • Last nursing? one hour ago but she only nursed for a few minutes … AHA!

  Sure enough, she was just hungry and nursed like a champ.

  Freya has also been practicing for speech much more often lately. Sometimes I’ll come downstairs for a coffee break and she’ll be laying on Jane’s lap looking up at her and cooing as if telling Jane a story. I wasn’t aware that I could smile so big until this daughter of mine came along.

• Martial arts – My mat time has been limited because trying to be a good parent is a priority. I attend Hapkido classes twice per week (usually Thursday and Saturday) and practice Bujinkan and Hapkido movements at home as part of my solo training. This year, I’ve started drilling down into basic movements and making them solid (again). Once I have more free time I’m planning to gather a Bujinkan group for class twice per week as well as attending and helping with Hapkido classes. I should really start adding my thoughts about martial arts training here because I need to get them out of my head and discuss them with the world.
• Runnning – Kona and I have been out a few times this week and I’m getting ready to don the sweaty running gear that is currently hanging in our guest bathroom shower. More updates on running coming along soon as I start planning for the 1/2 marathon in June. With this much time to prepare I think this is going to be a great experience for me.
• Personal Training – I’ve dusted off the NASM material and have been studying again to take my CPT (certified personal trainer) test. This is another of my great ideas that lost momentum and sort of fell by the wayside. If anyone reading this is interested in a free personal trainer to help me stay motivated and gain experience helping you reach your fitness goals, let me know (contact me here if you don’t have my contact info).

So there it is, a quick and dirty update of my life over the past three weeks. Now, it’s time to lace up and hit the street – puppo is getting antsy.