Desmond and I are feeling very Irish today.

Before Desmond was born, I was in bed at 9pm. I would look forward to 9pm! Because it was bed time and I could snuggle up and just be happy to finally be doing nothing! Ohh how times have changed. Now I look forward to 9pm because that means I have about 2 hours of ME TIME! Desmond is in bed, Jackie is in bed. The house is all mine. I get to surf the internets, or watch a movie, or catch up on my tivo shows. Ohh it is good times! Getting to 9pm is no easy task. Here is an example of what today was like.

Desmond woke up at 7am. Bathe Desmond. Bathe Dogs. Bathe myself. Feed Desmond. Clean House. Go to grocery store. Go to Perry to Feed Sue. Make Dinner. Chase Dutchy around the neighborhood. Clean Kitchen. Clean Desmond’s bottles and refill them. And just when I think it is safe to finally sit down I hear a weird noise from the kitchen in one of the dog cages, and this is what I come up upon….my day never ends.

He loves Foam Beds. This is not the 1st time he has done this either.
(click here for a video)

I am going to try a new approach for the website. I am stealing this idea from my friend Leigh Ann who I have never met! But are friends via the internets and  SisNLaws. She has a blog and updates more often then I can keep up with. She pretty much kicks all our butts on posts. I cannot compete. She has been doing this thing where each day is a theme. Which is a fun neat idea. Kinda like when Q106 would do their “Two for Tuesday” before they sucked. I cant promise I will do it every single day, but I hope it will push me to post more. Maybe I will do a different one each week.

Memory Monday - I will reflect on a childhood memory.
Photo Tuesday - I will post a random photo from the last 24 hours.
Movie Wednesday - I will post a movie. (no I wont waste toilet paper anymore, gesh!)
Desmond Thursday - It will be all things Desmond.
Funny Friday - I will reflect on something funny or embarrassing about myself.

Photo Tuesday

Jackie and Desmond Reading a Book.

Six months ago today, life changed, over the last six months I have shared with you all this little boys journey, along with our journey as parents. In the 6 plus years that I have been doing a website, and the 3 plus years of blogging I think the last 6 months have been the most colorful and exciting. Thank you all for sharing with me my joy and coming each day for more. I hope I have been able to bring a smile and get a laugh.

As an added bonus, here is a little clip taken today of Desmond in his Jumperoo! Thank you Kelly and Joey for this GLORIOUS device, as you can see he LOVES it! Much like my poor little Honda, he is about to bust the shocks out and bottom out! Sometimes he is in it, and starts to fall asleep, and when we go get him out he wakes up and starts jumping immediately. It is very funny.

The trouble with making a movie and setting it up for a sequel is you are then committed. Plus you have to make it better then the first one. This is where most sequels fail. Can it live up to the hype. I have to admit, this one was tougher to do. It was also a lot of fun. I hope you all have enjoyed it. So without further a do, I present “The Escape Part Two” Enjoy!

Whenever I was a kid and had a pain anywhere on my body my mom would always say “oh its just growing pains” and I believed her every single time. She would tell me that my bones were stretching and this was just me getting bigger. I think she was just telling me a tall tale. Us Irish are good at tall tales. However, it worked, I mean how could I argue with that? I wanted to grow, no pain no gain right? So every time I had a slight pain I brushed it off as growing pains. I am 6 foot tall, and it hurt like a mother to get here.

Desmond is now experiencing his own growing pains. His little teeth are coming in. He has two little teeth just sprouting through. Next week he will be 6 months old! He is now rolling over both directions. This freaks him out, because I think he kinda rolls and falls back ontohis back, and is all “what the heck just happened?!” It freaks me out too, because this is one step closer to him going mobile! He can also sit up by himself. Usually if he gets too excited he falls back, but most of the time he finds a good balance and can sit and play. We watched him for about a half hour today just playing with toys and talking to them, it was very cool. I have noticed that every time I run to get the video camera he stops talking. I think he is on to me. I am just going to have to be more creative and sneaky.

His sleeping is hit or miss here latley. He seems to sleep every other night, Jackie is really great about getting him back to sleep, she has a real nack for this now. She is wonderful. Our little boy is growing so fast! I am not sure we can keep up, we are just soaking up every moment we can. I still just cant get over it. Its funny sometimes I will see Desmond in things around me. I saw The Hulk the other night, and when the Hulk was sad or pouting, I saw Desmond. I sure do love that little boy.

This face is one of my favorite looks he gives. It makes me laugh every time.

What is The American Dream? This is something I have been asking myself a lot here lately. I feel I have a unique perspective on this question, because I am not from America. My mom and dad moved here to find the American Dream. They moved here for my sister and I to find it. Americans had found it, so now it was our turn to try and find it. When I was about seven years old, long before I knew I was moving to America I had a dream I was in American….flying (yes flying) around tall buildings (hang in there Kelly, I am not going to get all dream interpretation on you) but I dream t of America. I think I had just seen the music video “Born in the USA” so somehow it snuck into my night time dreams. Five years later when I turned twelve, we packed five suitcases and got on a plane and that was it, bye bye Ireland, hello USA.

Am I living the American Dream? Back then the dream was big house, big car, big TV, everything was cheap, money was no object, because this was America! Eighteen years later that dream seems so silly. Now, I am trying to sell my big house, avoid a big car, everything is expensive! Ok I am keeping the Big TV, sorry.  So the dream has changed. My American Dream is now very different. An old friend introduced me to their husband this weekend, and said, “this is Greg, he is from Ireland, but has a southern accent” I kinda sunk in my seat a little bit. I am not knocking the southern accent (Leigh Anne), but it kinda hit me…….I am one of US now. Was that not my dream? To be American? To fit in? I guess it was. So to answer my question, Yes. I am living the American Dream, because I married an American Girl, I have an American Boy, and now I am an American Man, doing things the American way……kinda. I still have my Irish moments. But you know what? I am going to hold onto my Irish ways, because they make people laugh, and they make me who I am. Ok thats all I got.

Between the ages of 5 and 9 I remember summer time as fun in the sun, and getting a tan! I would brown really nice. I never burned. I would just get this really nice looking brown tan all over my body, and people were jealous. Everyone would admire my beautiful tan, I looked like a little foreign boy from spain or somewhere tropical. You may not think anything of that, but for a little Irish boy, this was a big deal. At least it was a big deal to all the grown ups around me, because most everyone in Ireland is pale white, and when there is a heat wave and the sun is shining (which is not often!), they fry like lobsters. So for me to tan and not burn, I was a super hero among my Irish counterparts. I was an elite.

Ohh but like every superhero I had a weakness, or a vulnerable spot you might say. That spot was my buttocks. It was as white as snow. So when I tanned, my glory was short lived when my mother thought it was the greatest thing ever to show everyone my buttocks, to compare my tanned back to my bright white untanned butt cheeks. She would yell with excitement to her friends or whoever was around, “look at this boys beautiful tan, and see how his little cheeks are snow white….isn’t it glorious!” she would say. Every time we met someone she knew (or didn’t know, it didn’t matter! I dreaded being called over….because as soon as I got within arms distance of her, she grabbed me threw me over her knees and down came my pants, and behold there was a beacon of light shining as bright as the moon, that moon was full, that moon was my butt.

Earlier I posted photos of Desmond, because I just thought they were so cute, but Jackie suggested I pull them down….and I agreed, I was not thinking, but then I got to thinking, and the above entry is what came of it. So Bonus for that. For those that got to see his cute little butt, congrats! (I know who you are!) it is chubby and beautiful. :)

For those who can’t view youtube click here.

Picture One: I finally got a good picture of the tongue sticking out, I love that little tongue.

Picture Two: Danny and Desmond. They are going to have so much fun together!

Picture Three: He is getting so big. Crawling is about to happen any moment.

Picture Four: My Mom and Desmond having a good time.

Picture Five: In midswing sleeping like a baby. I want a swing like this so bad.

Picture Six: This picture made me laugh! As I snapped it, he ripped one. His face is priceless.