My daughter Jessalyn 6th Birthday is today, at the exact time of me writing this actually. I remember being extreme nervous and super proud to have a baby in our lives. Jen and I packed up what we needed and me being me I video taped the entire experience. In the car I’m doing this documentary style quick interview of her but talking to the camera as if I’m talking to Jessalyn. I can remember just about everything that happened that day in vivid detail which is in stark contrast to our wedding day where only pictures can help me recreated the blur of saying I Do. It’s funny how some things you remember like that other others you get vivid detail. I’ve talked to other people about this and they too have said that usually you don’t remember the ceremony of your wedding but you can remember the birth of your children. I recall spending hours with Jess in the hospital’s nursery focused on my newly born daughter and being so proud and recording and photographing the entire experience. It’s funny to think about it now since I can remember every detail of that morning even without the pictures. Once the dust settled and a few days passed I looked at how many photos I took and was amazed that I ended up with around 800 photos and a few hours / tapes of video. Even with all those pictures and videos no amount of technology can capture that feeling of being a new Dad.

Dad, Jessalyn and Mom

Jessalyn’s my buddy, my lil best friend, when I’m feeling down she cheers me up and when shes is feeling down I do the same. On my desk at work sits this great Fathers Day gift that my wife made for me, it’s a framed collage of two pictures and some stars along with an outline of my hand and Jessalyns on top of one another.  On it is a poem that reads:

Holding Daddy's Hands - 2007

Holding Daddy’s Hand
Walking down the winding path
I hold tight to Daddy’s hand
His firm but gentle grip makes me
Feel safe like nothing else can
I don’t know where we are going
But my Daddy knows the way
He leads us down the path that’s right
And will not let us stray
I hold on to his hand tightly
I know he won’t let me fall
For my Daddy is the biggest and the strongest of them all
I don’t ever have to worry
When I hold his hand in mine
Because I know he will protect
And love me for all time

Recently Jess has switches from holding my index finger to holding my hand when we walk together, at first I resisted the change but now it only feels right that we hold hands palm to palm. Every once in a while  she’ll grab my finger almost like some muscle memory of years past has come back and when she does she’ll look up and me and we’ll both giggle.

I love you Jess, Happy 6th Birthday my big girl!

My youngest daughter Jessalyn is 4 and has only been to a few birthday parties. Her take on a birthday party is one of the following or a combo of any of these:

Place:

• at a park
• while camping
• at the beach
• in the living room
• in someones back yard
• a restaurant

With some of these activities:

• see people you’ve never seen before and hide from everyone
• only close family and a few close friends
• eat food
• sing happy birthday
• eat cake
• eat pizza
• watch others take a wack at piñata
• watch a baby eat a special cake no one else wants to eat because he put his face all over it

My 32nd birthday is tomorrow and Jessalyn is VERY excited and I’m curious as to what she thinks my birthday will be and what combonation above she thinks will be occurring. I didn’t plan my birthday this year my wife did, my understanding is that she hasn’t told Jessalyn about it since she wasn’t quite sure what the activity would be. It was either going to be a trip to the mountains to see and play in the snow or a trip to Disney Ice to go ice skating. Jessalyn hasn’t done much of the former and has never done the latter. Due to the harsh weather that we have been having here in California it looks like we’ll be going to Disney Ice and have fun ice skating. Lately Jessalyn and I have been reading this book before bed called “Skating with Bears” by Andrew Breakspeare. It’s about a boy that isnt good at skating and sneaks out and night and puts his skates on and tries to learn. These mounds of snow near the rink turn into bears and they help him learn to skate. With us reading this book from time to time she’s been asking me about skating and if I’ve ever done it before. We talked about how I use to go skating yearly and how I also use to roller blade quite a bit. The connection of skating and roller blading didn’t quite work out in her head until one day I put them on and showed her. I’d imagine once we take her ice skating she’ll get the connection even more.

Ice skating and my birthday have quite a history. When I was a kid we would pile in as many friends as we could into the car and drive up to Blue Jay to go ice skating at the Ice Castle. We must have went to the Ice Castle at least 4 or 5 years in a row. In 2001 I wanted to go to the Ice Castle for my birthday and that year after a major storm the Ice Castle was severely damaged when the roof collapsed and they closed the place. A few years later we went ice skating at Disney Ice which looks like is now called The Rinks Anaheim Ice and we’ve been going there ever since. I wouldn’t mind making my birthday all about ice skating, everyone but Jen loves doing it. She typically sits on the side or in the bleachers and watches and takes pictures of us. Some day I’ll get her on the ice!

Jessalyn at Disneyland

Click see the pictures from Jessalyn’s 4th Birthday at Disneyland

Jessalyn and Dad

My Daughter Jessalyn turns 4 today; she’s grown from this little tiny infant to an awesome 4 year old “big girl”.  It’s funny the nicknames you give your kids and how sometimes they contradict themselves. I call Jess by many names: “big girl”, “short stuff”, “sweetie”, “sweet pea” (she gave herself that one) and my fave “love bug”. Big girl and short stuff are all relative and it just shows how much she’s grown over the last few years.

We’ll be celebrating her birthday at Disneyland and she’s extremely excited to get to buy some stuff with the money that Disneyland is giving her due to us having Annual Passes. Your gift from them can be the value of a ticket or a few other things. She’s had her eye on this awesome Disneyland castle so we’re thinking she may end up with that.

Jessalyn, thanks for giving loving me the way that you do and letting me be the best Dad that I can be for you. It means a lot to me and I hope it means a lot to you.