Crop circle

(Cue X-Files theme music) On Friday when we were off from work together, I had you playing with your blocks. You always enjoy playing with your blocks whenever you get the chance. I always ask you if you want to play with your blocks and you immediately sit on the floor in your room and wait for me to grab them. I usually just open them up and dump them into your lap. Normally, you do one of three things with them. 1. You put them in your mouth. 2. You chuck them around the house. 3. You've actually started trying to assemble them together. On this particular day, after putting you down for your nap, I walked into your room to put your blocks away. "What the?" is what I said to myself when I first saw this formation that you had created. I can honestly say I had no hand in the making of this artwork. It may not seem like much, and you probably had no clue what you were doing....Or did you??? I just had to capture this because you've never done it before.

dpgmarine

D.I. Vladi

So yesterday I was thinking about you and I had an urge to find you some military gear. I remembered that there was a store in the Montebello mall that sold such items. After work I went over there to pursue my intentions. When I got there I was disappointed to find that there was only slim pickens as far as the eye could see. Just as I had lost all hope, I found this black cover that I could just picture you in. I started looking through them and saw that they were for adult sized heads starting at a size xtra small which was 6 3/4. I kept looking at it thinking would this fit your grape. I said what the heck and decided to get it for you. When I was about to pay I saw that they also made dog tags there. I saw that they made black ones and thought what a perfect accessory to go with your cool new boonie cover. Five minutes and thirty dollars later I had the combo in hand and was anxious to have you wear the new digs. When I got home and had you try it on it fit you, but it was a bit snug. We ended up having to return it later that evening and get you a size small which was a size 7. Wow! What a big brain you have Vladi!!! Well today I was off from work and we spent the day together. You looked like a mini drill instructor. Now please don't mistake Vlad's innocence for weakness. He may not look tough now, but if he chose, I'm sure he would make one mean D.I. Your mom might not like me even mentioning such a career path, but know that whatever road you choose I will support you 100% even if you choose to follow in my footsteps and join the Marine Corps!

dpgmarine

Bonk

Today your mom had to work so me and you had another day together. You took a nap around 11:30am and woke up around 1:00pm. After you got the sleep out of your system, I fed you some lunch. Oddly enough, you woke up in a good mood. I decided to take you out for a walk around the neighborhood. I had you don your new camoflauge bucket hat to match you camo pants, grabbed your water, and we were off. Everything was fine for the most part. The sun was out and you were enjoying our walk. We turned the corner on Old River School Dr. and continued North. Your head must of got hot so you took off your hat. We were about halfway up the street when "Pow!" That's the sound of cranium meeting concrete. No matter how many times you try, concrete will always win. You went into silent cry mode as I picked you up. Initially I thought you hit the side of your head, but then I saw the knot on your forehead. Uh Oh!! Mama's gonna be mad. I quickly offer you some water to distract you from crying and it works. You sympathetically sip from you cup and I hug you tight. Within 20 seconds you stopped crying. David U Genius! I still don't know how you hit your head because you're pretty good at putting your hands down to break your fall, but every now and then that massive head makes its way through towards the ground. I've been pretty lucky to this point because all of your major bonks have occured on your mom's watch. I guess even my luck was bound to run out. I'm just glad that you were okay and lived to walk another day. By the way today is your Birthday and you are now 20 months old. Happy Birthday Vladimir!!!

dpgmarine

Friday Fun

Yesterday was our annual Bldg 2 picnic at my job. I had worked the previous Saturday to cover my hours for Friday so I was off. I was hoping that you would wake up later so that you wouldn't be tired and grumpy while we were over there. The morning started off with you being brought to the bed when your mom was leaving to work which was around 6:10am. Not a good start. I was able to persuade you to go back to sleep with me and we would end up getting up around 8:00am. I fed you, gave you a bath, gave myself a bath, and we were on the road by 10:30am. It was very cloudy with a slight drizzle and I thought this was going to ruin our fun. As we made our way up the 605 frwy it looked even darker towards Azusa. As we got closer I realized that I had forgotten to bring your ball for you to play with at the park. Thanks to my quick thinking we stopped at a local grocery store and bought you a brand new ball. New ball: $1.00 Entertainment value: Priceless. So we finally arrive at our destination around 11:15pm and surprisedly it wasn't raining and the skies were partially clear. We head over to the picnic site and make our presence known. We are greated by your titi Melissa, the boss Cyndy, and my co-worker Jenny. You seemed to be in a anti-social mood or maybe it was just the bad weather. Jenny was kind enough to put you on the swing and give you a couple of pushes. You seemed to enjoy that and you also began doing the kicking motion with you feet as you swung as to say you wanted to go faster. We were able to meet with a lot of my co-workers and friends. Most of the time rather than meet and greet, you choose to go off on your own and explore the park. Luis finally shows up, but seems to be empty handed. No monkey in tote. He offers you another ball for your enjoyment. Sam then offers to entertain you for a while allowing me to get some food. There was BBQ chicken, rice and some other stuff. I enjoyed the chicken and you made your way back to me and shared the chicken with me. Finally Luis' wife shows up with Ba Than "BKA" Jigme. We go over to say hello and he's already having a blast on the swing. The two of you have a blast swinging away and laughing it up. You hung out with Michele, who tried to get you to rock on a purple dinosaur, but you weren't having any of that. We also got to meet Cyndy's husband Ron. He greeted you with a hello and you replied back with not only one, but two consecutive burps. Very classy! There was also a limbo contest going on and we waited for the perfect opportunity to enter. Just as the bar was at its lowest point, we snuck over and attenpted to go under. Unfortunately, it was low enough that you hit your above average head directly on the bar and didn't make it under. Oh well, maybe next time. You started yawning so I thought we better get going because I wanted to take you over to work so a few other people could see you. So we grab your ball, a water, and one of those oversized cupcakes and make our way out. We sat in the visitor's parking lot for a few minutes while I dialed numbers trying to reach people. I wasn't able to get a hold of anyone so we took off home so that I could put you down for your nap. We arrived back home around 1:15pm and after putting our stuff away and changing you we laid down. You were very tired so I knew this would be a piece of cake. I think you feel asleep by 1:30pm. Normally after you fall asleep I slither my way off the bed trying not to wake you up. This time as I was almost off the bed I thought to myself-Self "You don't have anything to do or anywhere to be." I then decide to roll myself back onto the bed and lay next to you. Next thing I know it's 3:00pm. You wake up, but I convice you to stay asleep with me. This was great. I love snuggling with you and I was able to get some sleep at the same time. Before you know it your mom was home from work. Me and you had slept for almost two and a half hours. What a beautiful thing!!

dpgmarine

The sleep that never was

(Readers Disclaimer: Some may not like what I have to say, but it's the truth and how I feel!)
Last night was something else! I had made the announcement that I wanted to be in bed by 9:00pm since I was feeling very tired. Normally I go to sleep between 10:30 and 11:00pm, but every now and then I want to try and get more than four hours of sleep seeing as you need some sleep to function. So your mom hops into the shower and me and you climb into the bed with the ol' boob tube on. Now granted, I knew that this was not going to be an easy task because I had put you down for a nap around 5:30pm and you had already slept for an hour and a half. Well, about 10 to 15 minutes go by and oddly enough you start to fade away. Inside my head I'm saying "yes" this is going to happen. I can see it now, 6 hours of beautiful sleep coming my way. Enter your mom-The scene quickly changes. She innocently slips into bed and you turn away from me to face her. Okay I say, I'll let mom finish off what I already started. So I get comfortable on the very edge of the bed which is where I normally end up. Suddenly, I open my eyes and see the shadow of this apple head sitting up to the left of me. It then falls back down for a few seconds and then re-appears. Oh no!!! You're starting to act very restless and nothing is being done to stop you. I continue to see how this is going to play out. Just as I suspected the sandman leaves the room and you are wide awake. I look at your mom with a look that probably wasn't too pretty and I get a blank stare back at me. Time to take action! I snatch you up and put you on my right side away from her and once again try to get you to go to sleep. You're a little agitated, but you start to calm down. I look at the clock by the bed and it's now 9:45pm. Damn, I've already lost one of those six hours I was so anxiously awaiting. It seems like you're fading away again, but you start doing your flipping and flopping all over the bed and finally I can't take it anymore. I spring up and haul you off to your crib to let you put yourself to sleep. This would be around 10:15pm. I believe mom is already out and she's a pretty deep sleeper whereas I'm a very light sleeper. Do you go to sleep? No! You decide you're going to test out your vocal chords and begin to cry really loud. Now you've awoken another person. Angry dad! Mentally at this point I was already writing this blog as all this was transpiring. So your cries begin to get louder and louder. I'm not going to budge. It's now 10:30pm. I get up and you're standing in your crib, but I only lay you back down and cover you with a blanket and tell you to go to sleep. This would only infuriate you more so the cries start to flood the otherwise quiet night. Now you decide to stand up and start opening and closing the door that's just within your reach. Angry dad jumps back into action and this time emphatically drags your crib away from the doorway and lays you back down. Out come the cries. At this point I was lying there in bed with my eyes wide open. I was prepared to let you cry until you had nothing left even if it meant that I got only one hour of sleep. I wanted to prove a point to you and let you see that crying isn't going to always get you what you want. Time on the clock is now 10:50pm. This whole time your mother was either asleep or ignoring us and I think it was the first rather than the second. There she was off in dream land which is where I wanted to be, but instead I was trying to combat the storm that was Vlad's fury category 5. Finally, your mom awakes from her hibernation and jumps out of bed. Now I'm saying to myself she better be just laying you back down and trying to put you to sleep in the crib. I really didn't want her bringing you to the bed cause it just doesn't work when the three of us are together. Voila! Here she comes with you in tote and angry dad is furious. I give you guys my back and try to ignore you guys. At this point it's around 11:05pm and I think you've tired yourself out from all the screaming and crying. You started to wiggle around a little, but it looked like your mom was intent on putting you to sleep. So a question mark pops into my head. Why couldn't you do this two hours earlier????? Anyways, you give in rather quickly and fall asleep. As for myself I end up having a nightmare that I was shot in the back 8 times being in the crossfire of two gangs shooting at each other. The pain felt so real, but that's a story for another day. I guess I had enough of that dream so I awake and look at the clock 11:45pm. Awesome! I get out of bed and go over and forklift you out of the bed and put you in the crib. As I shuffle back to the bed with only 3 hours of sleep staring at me I think why, why did this have to happen this way....Needless to say I was dead tired by now. I don't remember turning the alarm off at 3:00am and when I opened my eyes it was already 4:15am. Damn it again! Now I'm going into work later than I wanted to. I guess I'll try again tonight to get to sleep early and see what happens!

dpgmarine