The Typical Dad is devoted to all things Dad. Gadgets, Tools, Projects, Family, and Fun with the Kids. If it involves the Typical Dad, It will be discussed here.
We did it. We faced the music and our son is now a Kindergarten Kid. If you want my in-depth feelings about this please see yesterday’s post. A few tears were shed by Mommy, but overall it went well. G has been attending this school for some time, so we are comfortable there. Here are a few pictures of the big day.
Getting ready for the Big K
G signing in for Kindergarten the 1st time
G and Mrs. C
It’s happening tomorrow. I’m losing him. He innocently runs through the maze of the playground with barely a clue of what will happen to him tomorrow. Every year it steals more children from parents than the boogeyman. Few children will even reach the age of six without being taken away from their parents by this endless scourge on parent-child togetherness.
Tomorrow my G will be stolen away from me by the dreaded Big K. Kindergarten is starting tomorrow and my life will never be the same. Before tomorrow, there is togetherness. After tomorrow, we will begin being pulled more apart. I will only be able to have “Daddy Days” on summer vacation and some holidays. On too few of those days will I be allowed to spend a whole day alone with my favorite guy. I will be forced to share him far too often. Up until now, very few weeks have passed without us having at least one Daddy Day. Now, it will be very few weeks with a Daddy Day. It’s the end of an era. One that leads us inextricably apart.
I know what is coming. First I won’t be allowed to kiss him in public. Then even the private kisses will go away. No more cuddling on the couch. Everything will be “Dad, not in front of my friends.” Other children will even teach him to question the holy triumvirate of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. Then there will be girlfriends, graduation, college, marriage. It’s not all bad. There may be grandchildren as well. Hopefully he will still live close enough to me for us to enjoy them.
So today, I will enjoy my last Daddy Day. I will enjoy the snuggles and kisses. We are going to have a great day. Tonight, we will go to bed early in anticipation of the big day. The day that marks the beginning of the end of little boyhood.
So forgive me if tomorrow, I seem a little down. I might even wear black to signify my mourning. I’ll take tissues to dry Mommy’s tears. It is an exciting new beginning for him. But for me, it marks the end of him being just Daddy’s and Mommy’s boy. I will have to share him. And in spite of what they will teach him at Kindergarten, nobody likes to share.
I’ve done it. The Typical Dad has it figured out. Using Zazzle, I am going to become a bagillionaire and take over the world by… wait for it…. SELLING T-SHIRTS. Yes, the Typical Dad now has a store.
I am using Zazzle.com for this service. Zazzle allows you to upload your design. When a customer orders the design, it is printed on demand and shipped. This allows people like me to have a “store” to sell designs without having to maintain stock, potentially ordering large amounts of merchandise that may never sell. As a seller on Zazzle, I make a percentage of the price that I am allowed to set. My standard commission is 15%.
This store is primarily an outlet for me to learn more about graphic design. I will only use this store to promote family friendly designs. I particularly am interested in designs that promote fatherhood and positive male images. So how does a Caramel Princess T-Shirt fit into this store? My wife is a caramel princess, and I have always promised her this shirt. So Honey, here it is.
Ok, I'm just going to come right out and say it. My wife and I, we have two wedding anniversaries. That's correct. I have been lucky enough that my wife said "I do" to marrying me on more than one occasion, but it's not what you think.
I have never been divorced, and neither has my wife. Well she better not have been. Our wedding was on July 19th, 2003 and we were legally married on July 10th, 2003. We had our wedding in Mexico, but we didn't want to deal with having our marriage in a foreign country. We lived 2 hours from Vegas, so we did the only thing that two logical adults could do.
A drive-through Vegas wedding.
It was even cooler than it sounds. I'm going to say this and mean it. Everyone should get married in Vegas at least once. Just getting your marriage license is an experience. We drove to Vegas on a Thursday afternoon, went to get our license, and there was a line. Now this wasn't the typical line at the DMV, but on a random Thursday in the middle of the day there is a line to get your marriage license. The line actually got longer after we arrived. Unlike the local DMV, this line moved efficiently. A very nice clerk completed our paperwork and in less than 15 minutes we had a license to get legally hitched.
We took our license down the road to the closest chapel. We chose the romantic drive through option as easily as I could order a Big Mac at McDonald's. Got back in the car drove around to the window and turned off the vehicle. The "minister" came to the window. He politely asked me to turn the vehicle back on (It was Vegas in July after all). Being my polite self he did not have to ask me to turn off the radio, I had that covered. A few minutes later I was kissing my beautiful bride. It was a nice little ceremony, just me, my wife, and the "minister".
So 10 years ago today, I married my wife for the first time. Less than 10 days later, I married her again. I will happily go on marrying her as many times as makes her happy. Maybe someday I will be able to write the beautiful words that her love deserves to inspire, but for now maybe, the story of our first wedding will do.
This week’s App of the Week is Duolingo. Duolingo is a website and app that uses a gamified approach to teaching foreign languages. I’ve done a few lessons now and while my Spanish is still horrible, I can see how this approach could lead to some improvement. Duolingo tracks your vocabulary and takes you through a skill tree as you learn. You can also compete against friends to see who can complete the most lessons. Duolingo claims that your chances of success increase by 200% when using this feature.
So how much do you pay for all of this? It’s free. Apparently, Duolingo uses its lessons to power its actual translation service for people that pay with real money. You can use Duolingo to learn Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, and English. The website is www.Duolingo.com and the app is available through iTunes, and Google Play.
The Typical Dad is always looking for some fun family activities. Recently, we loaded up the family and a friend and went to the Kansas City Maker Faire. Don’t know what a Maker Faire is? It was originally started by Make Magazine and is a celebration of people making things. Their tag line is “A Festival of Invention and Creativity.” Essentially, is a place for people who make physical things to get together, share ideas and maybe even sell some of their creations.
Read Moreda da da da PBS Kid
The Typical Dad is always looking for some fun apps for the phone or iPad. This is the first in what will be an ongoing spotlight on apps that I find and enjoy. I recently found a fun photo app from PBS Kids. This app lets you take a picture or import one from your gallery and edit it with your favorite PBS Kids characters. No fun and crazy filters here, just some frames and TV characters. Above are some photos of G that I “improved” with this app. PBS Kids Photo Factory is available from iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon .
Why does this post just have a picture of a bicycle without a cute little G atop it you may ask? It’s because this is this bikes natural state. It lives a solitary life in my home. It sits in a corner all by itself as if it is being punished, but it has done no wrong. Is the Typical Dad too lazy to take the bike and its boy to the park to ride? Maybe, but it would change nothing. There is no happy child and bicycle freedom story here.
Read MoreDisaster, disaster I say. The Typical Dad is writing this post from his …..OLD LAPTOP. The hinge on my beautiful, wonderful, useful, fun, (every good adjective that you can use to describe an inanimate object used to peruse the internet and work) convertible laptop is broken. My Lenovo Yoga is off to the random repair shop. I am using my 10-year-old (ok only 9) Acer Cheap-O laptop that will never die. It’s on its second battery. It’s an ugly beast of a laptop. It gets hot as Arizona in August (AKA Hades) any time I open more than 4 tabs on my browser. In fact, I may need an ice pack for my lap if I am to finish this post.
What does any of this have to do with my son finishing his Tee Ball season? Nothing! But, if you were writing a post with branding iron on your lap, you would make note of it as well.
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It seems that the Typical Dad is having trouble doing fifty things at once. Trying to get the site all cleaned up and really going takes time. Work takes time. Being a father takes time. Being a husband takes time. I enjoy all of those things (well not always the work thing), but it doesn't leave a tremendous amount of time for writing posts.
Read MoreI know Father's Day was TWO days ago. A real Blogger would have posted about Father's Day, you know, on Father's Day. Well in my defense TypicalDad.com didn't even exist (except in the Typical Dad's tiny little brain) until yesterday. Anyway, it was a great day..
First of all, I GOT TO SLEEP IN. I slept until like 10 AM. I felt like a whole new man. I could think. I could move. I'm not quite old enough to have the stiff body from sleeping too long thing. It was AWESOME. And after that, they still gave me presents. Don't tell my family, but the sleep may have been enough.
Read MoreAs I sit here eating cookies and drinking coffee, I am happy to write my inaugural post for TypicalDad.com. My name is Eric and I am just a Typical Dad. I don’t pretend to have any more insight into parenting than anyone else. Ok, well, that’s not completely true. We all know some absolutely horrible parents. I am definitely a better parent than those cretins.
Coffee, Cookies, and Legos
Like most things the impetus to start this site is related to a major life change. Ever since my son was born in late 2007, I have been at work part-time. The rest of the time I have been at home with my son. Now Kindergarten is coming. What am I going to do with myself while he is at school? Do I want him to stay in after and before school programs every day while I go back to full-time employment? Hell, do I want to go back to full-time employment? I mean, who doesn’t love working less than 20 hours a week? So what am I going to do. I’m going to do something stupid like start a blog.
I like a challenge and hopefully this will allow me to push myself to truly test my abilities. If you see it here, I did it. Well except for most of the photos of me. Self-portraits tend to suck. I will challenge myself to design logos, website, T-Shirts, and whatever I can find to help my blog be successful. I will also use this opportunity to finish projects around the home. I will do my best to document not just my successes, but also, my many mistakes along the way. I’ll also try to be the best dad that I can be, documenting those successes and failures.
Yes, I will try to make money off of this site. I am doing this not just as a hobby, but it is a way for me to augment my income while spending more time with my family. There will be advertisements. If I link to a product, I am trying to get paid from it. Currently, I have no sponsors or affiliate links. This is something that I will attempt to rectify as soon as possible. To paraphrase John Chow’s disclosure policy, I am trying to make money off everything I do at this site. Well maybe not everything. Some stuff will clearly be just for my enjoyment. Hopefully, I will be doing this for a long time, so I will try to be the best internet version of myself that I can be.
Eric, The Typical Dad
