Author: Josh

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Monthly Maly Letter: Month 12

Dear Maly,

You turned 12-months-old today. You’re a year old. So much has happened in a year and I couldn’t be more thankful and blessed to have had you here with me. You’ve been such a wonderful little girl.

You’ve been so happy, healthy and have helped realize what’s really important in this world.

Your major milestone this month were your first steps. You starting standing on your own last month, but it was a few days ago when you first attempted biped mobility. You made it a step and a half and flopped down onto your butt. Later that day your mom and I put you between us and handed you off to one another. You made it a good three steps before you lunged into my arms.


It’s so amazing to watch you grow. It’s nearly impossible to notice on a day-to-day basis, but I look at photos of you from only a month ago and it’s unreal how much you’ve changed. You’re successfully morphing into what you were sent here to do: walk, talk, poop, cry, laugh, fart, ask me for money, eat all of the food in the house and, with your infinite micro powers, harness what little hair I have left on my head and suck it through my scalp, into my brain where it will disintegrate any will power against you and stop to live comfortably while dangling an inch from either ear.

Now that you’re a lot more mobile, I can really see you’re gaining a sense of independence. At first I was scared. It was shorty after that you relieved me of that fear. Whenever we’re playing on the ground, you’ll occasionally stop and look up at me just so you can make sure that I’m still there watching you. Whenever I crawl on the floor after you while growling and saying, “I’m unna gitchoo!”, you’ll crawl like mad and then belly flop so you’re assured that I will, in fact, get you. I then kiss you on the cheek and you giggle such a happy giggle. I’ll then pick you up and throw you into the air and catch you on you way down while saying, “Weeeeeeee!!!” and you scream with joy. I’ll put you on my shoulders and trot around the house like a horse and you shriek and laugh. You’ll poop and then I just hand you over to your mom.

Your mom and I are so lucky to have you. There is an ancient Swahili song called, “Bwana, anakawuita” which, if I remember correctly, is about a traveling white man who receives a gift because when he arrived for dinner at a local tribesman’s hut, the tribesman was so embarrassed because his children had stayed up all the night prior, updating their MySpace pages and had since neglected to put away their Xbox360 games. So, the tribesman gave the traveler a goat as a significant gesture of sort. You see, it’s all about sacrifice and love. Your mom and I have sacrificed our love for you. Or would love to sacrifice you. I can’t remember.

My point is, your mom and I love you more than you will ever know. We’ve made sacrifices but so far, they’ve all been for the better. We’ve learned to love each other more so that you will grow up in a loving family and know how to love as well. When I come home from work, I kick the cat while walking through the garage door, fart while entering the kitchen, kiss your mom and then lovingly announce, “Wait’ll you smell that!” It’s at about that point where you notice my grand entrance, look up at me, smile and wave your Little Miss Universe wave and then I find solace in knowing that you just witnessed what real love is.

My real point is: I love you. Your mom and you mean the world to me. You’ve made me laugh like I’ve never laughed before. You’ve made me laugh harder than anybody else has. You’ve made me have nightmares that I never thought I’d have; nightmares where I thought I was going to lose you. You’ve made me cry like I’ve never cried before. The day after your were born I cried in the parking lot of the hospital while sitting alone in the truck. I had just driven back from having dinner with my parents and was returning to spend this night with your mom and you. I put the truck in park and without warning, I cried in a way that I didn’t know was possible to cry. I was so happy, nervous, excited, scared, confused and proud. We hadn’t even chosen a name for you yet. I just knew that my little girl was in that hospital that stood before me and I was her dad.

I love you, Sugar.

Love,

Daddy

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I’m not dead yet

I received another correspondence yesterday from the funeral home that held Dad’s memorial service. This one was a reminder that they had not yet received a response from their last correspondence entitled: Personal Information for Future Reference, which roughly translates to those that are still living: What Do You Want To Have Written About You (In Your Own Words) When You’re Cold and Blue. Which is why I’m going to write a polite letter to the funeral home and ask that they stop sending mail to me. It’s depressing. I know the funeral home at which we held Dad’s memorial service. I don’t need a monthly reminder. I don’t want or need to pre-arrange my Future Reference.

For those of you who know me, know this: When my day comes, I want to be cremated. If there’s money / a crematorium involved, save the money and burn me yourself (you’ll have to get this expedited by the County Medical Examiner but buy him/her a fruit basket and just get it done).  Roast weenies over the fire, have some beers, play some Willie Nelson songs — have fun.  Sprinkle my ashes all over the world. That’ll give you an excuse to worry less about whatever woes you and allow you to travel the Earth.  Don’t mourn me, but celebrate yourselves and whatever influence I might have had.

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Easter weekend roundup

The weekend started around noon on Friday. We headed to Mom’s house and when we were half an hour from getting there, I realized that I forgot the compressor and pneumatic hopper that I was supposed to bring so I could texture Mom’s bathroom walls. That was half of the reason why we were going to spend the weekend at Mom’s house.

I dropped Elise off at church in Frelsburg for Good Friday mass at 3 p.m. Maly and I went on to Mom’s house where I unpacked the truck and Mom showered Maly with kisses.

I drove back to church to pick Elise up at 4 p.m. and after an intense discussion, we decided against driving to Brenham to rent a compressor and hopper at the ol’ HoPot. Instead, Elise is going to drive to Mom’s house in two weeks while I’m hosting the 3rd Annual Godfather Club Meeting so she can spend the weekend and texture the bathroom walls.

On Saturday we went to Jessica’s Easter Party in Bellville. We had a great time hanging out with friends and seeing Maly meet the Easter Bunny for the first time. We forgot our cameras but commissioned John to take photos — I’ll post them when I get them from John.

It was really cool being in John’s childhood home again. I hadn’t been in that house in probably 10 years and I was really, really impressed with how Jessica fixed it up.

We left the party around 4 o’clock and Maly and I held hands and barely stayed awake while Elise and Mom were in the front driving us back to Mom’s house.

I conked out on the couch at 5 o’clock while Elise bathed Maly and got her ready for bed.

Mom woke me up around 7 and made me fix her computers. She still uses Windows-based PCs and recently purchased a new desktop computer running Vista. She was having a hard time getting her other computer (a laptop running XP) online. Two and a half hours later I finally got her laptop online. I’ve finally convinced Mom to buy a Mac as her next computer – unfortunately that won’t be for another couple years.

Elise and I stayed up until almost 1 a.m. watching TV. This morning Elise went to church. I slept in until 10 a.m. which was frickin’ awesome while Mom watched Maly. I smoked and grilled ribeyes and roasted some asparagus and zucchini for a late lunch. Elise started getting us all packed up so we could leave at a reasonable time. Jessica came over so we could haul an excersaucer back to Austin for Grayson.

A month or so ago I decided that I wanted my Dad’s Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum. It was this weekend that I claimed it. I’d never shot it before and decided since we were out at Mom’s house that I would try it out. My ears are STILL ringing. Elise isn’t really cool with having guns but it’s in my blood. A second degree blackbelt in Tae Kwon Do, a 12-guage shotgun and a .357 Magnum should keep my family and home relatively safe. Although a moat with sharks with laser beams attached to their heads would turn home security up to 11.

We got home around 7:30, unpacked, fed Maly and had a fun first video conference with Grandpa and Gran.

Fun weekend. Another weekend that just blew by too quickly.

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An overdue email to my Dad

I was checking all of my janicek.com email addresses on my host’s web panel tonight and took note of an email address that I had setup for my Dad four years ago.

It was at that point where I lost it.

I regained my composure long enough to write an email to my Dad.

I checked his inbox.  There were two spam emails.  There were 8 emails from our family friend, Don.  There was one email from his son, letting him know that he loved him and missed him.

I’m going to leave those messages there for him so maybe he can read them some day.

Monday marked six months since he died.

I miss you, Dad.

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Weekend wrap up

This weekend was a lot of fun but flew by way too quickly. On Friday night I came home from work just before Elise and Maly got home. Elise stopped at Whole Foods on the way home from picking up her packet for the Capitol 10k and bought sushi for us for dinner. We fed Maly a regular dinner, but decided to see if she liked sushi. I’d venture to say she really liked it.

On Saturday Elise photographed a wedding with Marc. Maly and I quickly packed up and hit the road. Our mission: to find a bicycle trailer so I can take her on bike rides with me. I had been shopping them on craigslist all week and realized that I could buy a brand new one for what I was finding on craigslist. I went to InStep’s website to find that Toys ‘R’ Us and Target were retailers. We went to Toys ‘R’ Us because I wanted a bike trailer and because I knew I could position myself to totally spoil my daughter. No bike trailers so we decided to leave. I had picked out a really cute denim dress with embroidered cherries and matching body suit for Maly, but decided to suppress compulsive purchases and just leave the store and continue on with our mission. I happened upon a little beach basket for Jack to take with him on his summer trip to San Diego and decided I couldn’t pass that up. So we had to endure the Saturday line at Toys ‘R’ Us.

Maly and I walked across the parking lot to Play It Again Sports where we found a bicycle trailer for $200. It was the same one that I found on InStep’s website for $150. And the one at PIAS wasn’t even in a box. Earlier, a Toys ‘R’ Us employee tipped me off on a bicycle shop on S. 1st that might carry trailers. We went to support the local guy only to find a trailer for $200. We loaded up again and headed to Target where I found a great Schwinn trailer for just over $100. Maly and I came home and started assembling the trailer just before Elise got home from her shoot. Once I was done with that, we went for a test ride.

Later that evening I cooked dinner for Rob, Julie, Elise and myself. I smoked salmon filets and made a dijon butter sauce and a basil and cilantro chimichurri. Elise roasted some fresh vegetables with course cracked pepper and rosemary.

On Sunday Maly and I woke up early, scarfed down breakfast and left to meet Rob, Luke and Jaden to watch Elise and Julie run the Capitol 10k. We had a great time watching the girls and the rest of the runners. Rob and I were really proud of our wives who have been running together for the past several weeks to 1) get in shape and make Rob and me look like wimps and 2) to help Elise train for the Danskin triathlon this summer.

After the race we took the kids over to Run Tex to play on the bouncy things and to see if we could win some door prizes. Elise won a pair of jogging shorts and a water bottle. Woot!!! Score!

We left the after party and stopped at Pluckers for some much needed and very healthy buffalo wings. Elise and Maly played after lunch while I gutted the flower gardens in the front yard in preparation for our landscaping overhaul. I then took Maly for another bike ride. We really like the new trailer. I’m hoping to get into shape and to show her the proper way in which to consume canker worms.

Elise and Maly went to church while your humble narrator removed the guest bathroom toilet and cleaned/replaced the wax ring that seals the toilet flange. Fun stuff, let me tell ya’.

It was a good weekend and I look forward to more of them now that Spring has sprung and my little Sugar can go out and do fun things with us.

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Monthly Maly Letter: Month 11

Dear Maly,

You turned 11-months-old today. Despite my efforts, I can’t seem to stop time. It’s seems like just yestereday you turned 10-months-old. In another month, you’ll be a year old. I’m really good with math like that. When you experience something in life that is known as “algebra”, we’ll take a family vacation.

As I write this, you are in your crib in your room, crying. Your Mom is out with her friends for their monthly girls night out. You and I played, you ate dinner, I bathed you, brushed your hair and put you down after walking around the house with you in my arms – just like when you were a newborn and I would walk you around the house and talk to you so you would fall asleep. It brought back fond memories holding you with my left arm and using my right had to cup the side of your head while playing with your hair with my thumb. You seemed tired, so I put you down in your crib and, with super hero gusto, bolted for the door and closed it behind me before you noticed I was gone. It seemed like you would fall asleep immediately but you stirred a few minutes later. I think you miss your Mom.

You’re becoming such a little person now. You easily feed yourself and you like everything that we give you to eat. You’re really starting to interact and talk to us now. You’re such a smart little girl, too. You know what the ceiling fan is, you know what the light is, you know what Mom’s and my nose and eyes are, you know what kitties are as well.

You also know that I get mad when you hit me in the face. I don’t think you understand what “mad” is, but rather, you know hitting in the face gets a reaction so apparenty that’s fun to you. We’re working on this hitting thing. I told you that I was a second degree blackbelt but that didn’t seem to phase you. When you’re able to stand more than ten seconds on your own, we can start sparring and I’ll show you what’s up. Seriously, it’s one of those things that babies do and your Mom and I have to figure out how to be good parents and fix your little slappy happy habit.

You caught a really nasty cold while on a road trip to Oklahoma with your Mom, John, Christine, Jack and Grayson. When your Mom and you came back home, you were horribly miserable. Your eyes were red and you could only open them 3/4 of the way. You were so weak and worn out. Your nose kept running and you had a nasty cough. I felt so bad for you and wished I could have fixed your hurts for you. Your Mom took you to the doctor where you were prescribed antibiotics and ear drops because the doctor thought you had an ear infection.

Your Mom and you took the prescription in to the pharmacy and went home. I came home from work to see you sad and sick. I went to the pharmacy to pick up your medicine. While waiting in line, I fought back tears. I hated that you were sick. I hated that my little girl was feeling so bad and there was nothing that I could do to fix it. I didn’t like thinking that we were going to have to give you antibiotics after we’ve been so good about feeding you the right foods and were vigilent in not giving you anything synthetic.

You’re feeling 100% better now and I’m so happy to have my little girl back to normal. You’re spunky and excited about everything again and EVERYTHING that you point to is a “Doh, doh, doh!!!” You’re too cute.

Your hair is getting longer and longer and it’s so beautiful. I’m jealous. Believe me when I tell you that I once had hair. Your hair is such a beautiful golden blonde. I love to play with it while your distracted playing with your toys. I always thought I’d shave a mohawk on my child’s head because I’m weird like that, but now I would never dream of doing anything with your hair. It’s so gorgeous and I can’t wait until it gets even longer so your Mom can laugh at me because I wholeheartedly tried to put your hair into pigtails but end up with a mash of hair above your forehead and another behind your right ear.

I can’t believe that in one month you’ll be a year old. In twenty years, you’ll still be my little girl. I love you so much and never thought that it was humanly possible to cherish someone other than your Mom as much. I’m so proud that you’re from such a loving family. I’m so proud of you.

I love you so much. My chest swells when I look at you and hear your giggle. I’m so thankful for you and I promise that I will do everything that I can do to make you giggle, keep you from getting sick or feeling hurt and teach you to love the way that I love you.

I love you, Sugar.

Love,

Daddy