Today I want to wish my oldest son, Dante’, a Happy 23rd Birthday! It is truly hard to believe he is that old. It seems like yesterday that he was born. What an amazing day that was!
This picture is one of my favorites of him. The way his eyes are looking off to the side reminds me of a mob boss. I can see that face sitting at a meeting of the Five Families and he’s takinig it all in. LOL.
This was in his bassinet, which had a Noah’s Ark theme. His whole room was done up in Noah’s Ark. There was a border on the wall, the crib sheets, the mobile, a lamp, and so many other things. I had no idea that they could make so many things for a theme. It was crazy.
Many know that he was diagnosed with Autism early on in his life. Thanks to early intervention and therapies, he is high functioning. He has Asperger’s Syndrome. He never let that define him. He was in the mainstream classes in school. He graduated and found work. He manages his money well and recently moved in to his own apartment.
I am so proud of all that he has accomplished in his life. I know he will continue to to grow and mature in the years ahead. He’s one amazing kid, well, a man now.
People say we look and act alike and I take that as a huge compliment. He is my Mini-Me and I love him very much. Happy Birthday, son. May your day be filled with love and happiness.
Yesterday, I blogged about it being Ella’s last night as a one year old. Today (2-10) she officially turned two! On one of the Facebook “dad” groups I am a part of, someone posted that “Time is a thief.” That is so true. I am still scratching my head and wondering how she could be two already!
On my way home from work, I stopped off and picked up her birthday cake. It came out perfect. I thought it was neat, because they hadn’t written the message on it in frosting. It was actually printed next to the Minnie Mouse design.
The store also had balloons, so I made sure to get a HUGE number “2” balloon to mark the occasion. I helped Sam hang the banner before work last night, and she did the rest of the decorations before bed last night.
She put up streamers and blew up balloons. She then set up Ella’s gift. I guess it is called a “nugget.” It folds, stacks, and such. I can totally see her and I having some fun with this thing.
When I got home, she was still asleep. I was surprised, because she is usually up when I walk through the door. It made the day even more special to be able to sing Happy Birthday to her when Sam brought her out to the living room. She was probably not really ready to be up, so when she came out she wasn’t quite sure what to make of everything. It didn’t take long and she was playing around with the balloons and her “nugget.”
Nickelodeon has a “Birthday Club” where you can schedule calls to your kids from their favorite characters. I had a call scheduled for her from the Bubble Guppies. She smiled when they said her name and wished her Happy Birthday. It was a pretty cute bonus to the morning.
I whipped up some birthday scrambled eggs for her with some cheese on top with a side of blueberries. As she enjoyed her breakfast, I headed to bed because I knew I would be up in a short while.
Ella had a doctor check up this morning and afterward, Sam took her to the Peppa Pig World at the mall. I slept from about 9:30a to noon and got up to head out and meet them there (about a 50 minute drive). She was excited to see me when I got there and she was running from one thing to the next playing!
Because of Covid, Sam and I have been very careful and really haven’t taken her out much. When I walked in, the place was loaded with moms and their “piggies” who were all over the place! My anxiety was through the roof. We must have been hitting the hand sanitizing stations every time we saw one.
She had a blast! We didn’t stay too long, and when we left, we hit the gift shop. Boy, are THEY raking in the money! We saw this Peppa Pig car that we have seen before at Walmart. That was the toy that she picked out. We plopped it on the checkout and it was like $35!! At Walmart, it was like $22. What a markup!!
There is a Build a Bear in the mall and we went to get her Birthday Bear. We did this last year, too. Personally, I like this year’s bear better. It seemed much softer than the one from last year. It is such a cool thing for kids. You pay the price of your birthday. She is 2 – the bear was $2. By the time we got done, the fact that it was naptime was apparent. She was getting cranky.
Sam stopped at Carter’s (which was right by the Build a Bear) to see about an outfit for her birthday pictures this weekend. Sam found an outfit for pictures and some St. Patty’s outfits for them. Surprisingly, she was unable to find a good Valentine’s Day outfit for them (which is probably a good thing and saved us like $60!).
One of my favorite pics of the day – the two most important ladies in my life!
Andrew was at Nana and Papa’s so Ella could go to the doctor. When we left, I drove back home to try to sleep a bit more. Sam and Ella left to go get AJ. Ella fell asleep on the way, so Sam (as most parents would do) drove around awhile in hopes of getting her some sort of nap. I finally got into bed about 3:15-3:30.
Ella got to pick what she wanted for dinner. She loves tacos from one of our favorite Mexican places. Sam picked it up on the way home and woke me about 5pm so we could eat and have cake.
This look! LOL!
After dinner, I grabbed the “2” candle, put it on the cake and brought it out so we could sing Happy Birthday. What was the first thing she did? She starts to grab the flame of the candle! Sam did the best she could to keep her still as we sang to her and then she blew out the candle.
I had a Microsoft Teams meeting I had to call into on my way to work. Normally, I would be there in person, but because I wanted time with Ella, I decided to leave later and just call in on my drive in. By the time the meeting was over, I texted Sam to see if the kids were still awake. (I usually do a video call before they go to bed.) She texted back that they were already in bed and asleep. Both were pretty wiped out from a busy day.
I still cannot believe that my baby girl is 2 years old. Time is a thief indeed!
Happy Birthday, my sweet Ella! I snapped this picture of you today and it is probably my favorite. There stands a little girl pondering what to do next. She is a little girl full of potential. She is a girl who is smart. She knows she is going to do amazing things – and she is planning just how to get those things done! God has blessed mommy and me with you. We love you as big as the world! We look forward to the many wonderful things you will do in the years ahead!
There is no real theme to today’s blog. Over the past 24 hours, I have jotted down a few thoughts in my notebook and I decided to put them all in one place.
Happy 17th Birthday, Dante’!
Last year, I wrote a blog for my son’s 16th birthday. You can read it here:
I have no comprehension of just where the time goes! I mean, he just turned 16! Has it really been 365 days already?! Just yesterday, we were talking about how we’re going to need to rent a pavilion for his graduation party, ordering senior pictures, whether or not he’s going to want a class ring, and things like that. It seems like yesterday that I was holding his hand as I walked him into his kindergarten class, and yet here he is about to be a senior!
He texted me at work yesterday and asked if he could call me. I called him and he told me that he was watching the Simpsons and the episode made him think of me. It’s the Stonecutter’s Episode. In the episode, they are all seated around a table and they sing a song called “The Stonecutter’s Song (We Do).” I have it on my iPod, and it is also the ringtone for my old radio boss, Brian, who is a big Simpsons fan. Dante’ called me to sing the song to me on the phone and we had a very nice talk. He had me smiling for the rest of the night. I love that kid! Happy Birthday, Dante’! Can’t wait to celebrate with you this weekend!
National Pet Day
I read that today is National Pet Day. Growing up we always had dogs. When I moved away for a radio job, I was given a cat to keep me company. I think I’ve had a cat ever since. I love dogs, don’t get me wrong, but with a cat, you can go away for a day or two and as long as they have food and water, they’re good. We still talk about getting a dog in the future, but with us working long days, a dog would spend a lot of time cooped up in the house.
At any rate – in honor of National Pet Day, here are Maizey and Moe.
Mortgage Company Followers?
This bit is for my Word Press followers. I seem to have a variety of mortgage companies or mortgage lenders who have begun to follow my blog. Let me say this – I’m probably not going to post anything about real estate or mortgages on this blog, so you may as well unfollow me. We are currently NOT looking for a new home, and I am wondering why my blog is so interesting to them. I wonder if these accounts are fake. I will get random notifications from Word Press saying that one of the said followers have “liked” one of my blog posts, usually one that was posted a while ago. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Conference Talk
Coming up in June, I am going to be a speaker at a Sleep Conference. I am very excited about it, and had a nice discussion with my boss about it today. We were tossing ideas back and forth and swapping ideas, which was extremely helpful. It helped to be able to talk to someone who has already presented at a past conference.
As a former radio guy, speaking in front of people has never been an issue. For whatever reason, I had one of those “What the hell am I doing?” moments this week. Usually, I am talking to a group of people who don’t know much about my topic. At this conference, however, I am speaking to my peers. I will be talking to fellow technologists (many of who have been doing this longer than me), physicians (who know WAY more than I can even imagine), my coworkers, lab managers and DME company reps. I’m not going to lie, I am intimidated. I can only hope that I can present this in a way that excites my audience and informs them. Oh, and I hope I don’t look like an idiot!
A Special Hello
I always share a link to new blogs on my Facebook page. However, because I have friends who are still friends with people from my past, those posts were not made public to them. A friend who was mentioned in a recent blog enjoyed it so much, he chose to share it on his Facebook page. Because he and I went to the same school, and share many of the same friends, folks who I had intended not to see this page now can.
It’s really no big deal, if they get anything out of it, I hope they now see how very much my life has changed for the better and how happy I am. I hope they read it and examine themselves and see just how judgmental they are. I hope that realize the negative vibes that they bring about by their unhappiness. If they want to surround themselves with hate, gossip, judgment, and find happiness in making others unhappy – so be it. I’m glad that my life still interests you and will give you much to talk about. Troll away – I am sorry for you sad existence.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 