Happy Birthday...

...to me! Ahh, the beauty of writing your own blog as you get to take time out to give yourself a pat on the back once in a while. I turn 29 today and had another solid year in the books. I have a great son attempting to wish me a happy birthday at dinner last night in the video. He's got the happy part down and then just goes blshpshs for the birthday part. You can see him eyeballing me and then back to his mother holding the camera. I think all that talk about not keeping him can come to an end. We are definitely going to keep him. His is going to be a serious handful for his teachers. He's all trouble. He's the kid that's too smart for his own good, which leads to boredom, which leads to stirring the pot to make things interesting. And by interesting I mean to him and painful for everyone else. Oh, yes, I see many a trip to the principal's office. Hmm, who does that remind you of? Yup, Carrie was quite the trouble maker growing up. Okay, that's not exactly true. Here we are at 18 months (he's wearing 3-T) and I am already feeling sorry for his teachers that are years away from having him in their class. It's that obvious. And deep down it brings a cheshire grin to my face because he's just like me and you know they say the best form of flattery is replication so how can I not be in love with his trouble maker personality? I am almost going to skip into Mr. Principal's office chuckling all the way that it's fine. Secret high fives on the way home. (I'm a horrible parent) but a proud poppa! Ice cream son? That prank was awesome! Oh, and for show you're grounded. Ha!

He's really working on his vocabulary. He can't say Lucky and around here getting called Stinky is a compliment so he knows the dog's nickname is Stinky and he can say that. So he wakes up in the morning - always in our bed so when I say wake up I really mean for like the third or fourth time. He crawls over me with no regard to my aging body and says, "Hi Sthinky!" A ton of enthusiasm behind that hello too. We find him just calling him Stinky all the time even when we aren't really paying attention and then you hear it and just bust out laughing. So our poor abused dog now had his name reduced to Stinky. I hope the Luckster knows that round these parts that's a compliment. We love our stinkbomb (Q) and our loyal dog Stinky. When I begin to affectionately refer to my wife as Smelly I know we've lost all sanity and gone too far. Until then it works for us.

For the first time in a long time I didn't wake up by Q crying at dawn. Somehow I was dreaming right through it and then got straight cold cocked in the forehead. I jump up shaken and thinking what the hell was that? I knew it couldn't be junior because I hadn't heard him cry yet. I lean over and see somehow he broke out of his crib and was just getting comfortable at my expense. As I peer over spread out boy I see a foot squarely jammed into Carrie's jaw so apparently it was my birthday and I got the upper torso instead of the stinky feet treatment. You have to take the small wins in this house. I'm up, she's up and milk the cows boy is sleeping soundly with arm jammed into my face and foot squished into my wife's face. Seriously, this kid better put me in the most expensive home money can buy when I need my diapers changed. He owes - big time for all the abuse we are taking. Another 16.5 years of this plus I'm required to pay for college? Seriously? People should really be drawing you a better picture before you go for the his kid-plunge.

So today a little hookie from work, a round of golf and then a buddy from college is flying in so I pity our neighbors tonight. The tiki torches are lit and the adult refreshments will be cold. We haven't see our gator friend in a few days and I hope he makes an appearance for our guests. Another beautiful day in paradise with Stinky and Stinkbomb.