You can't always get what you want

This year, which has not been bad at all, has been going by at an incredible, mind numbing speed. Seems like yesterday it was New Years Eve in Times Square and now we are at Halloween again already. This year however, has been different than the past. For the better actually. See, I haven't found out things yet, but I've had to deal with a lot of things I been avoiding and I have had to confront some pretty big fears. Yea, I know, sorry, cryptic and I apologize but, I like to let you in on the fact that I am having these insights, just not as to what they are.

Tomorrow is Halloween night and I was going to try and get back to Oklahoma to be with Nate this year, simply because even though we always video chat every year before and after the event, I haven't been with him dressed up in his little outfit in four years now. It's a trade off to have Christmas and it's an easy choice, but still, how many years does your kid still want to dress up as a Star Wars Clone Trooper? I'm missing out on that and it doesn't go by me without difficult notice. So we video chat again and we enjoy the time we spend at Christmas and we hope next year allows us to get both.

Nathan's report card

Ask me, who has a kid, who just got strait A's on a report card, is doing well in Baseball, reads on a grade level above his, has been doing all his house chores as promised and wants to buy a cookbook for kids so he can learn to cook.

Go ahead, ask me. :)

what nathan wants to be

So far it has gone in this order from most the recent to the earliest I can remember him saying he wanted to be. I think I will keep this handy and update it as needed.

2006: Designer (wants to travel like his dad)
2006: Soldier (saw a national guard ad at the theatre)
2006: Photographer (likes to play with dad's camera)
2006: Film Director (likes to make movies on the camera I got him)
2006: Race Car Driver (from a movie)
2005: Astronaut (later decided he wasn't crazy about heights)
2005: Scientist (this was / is to coincide with being an astronaut)
2003: Policeman
2003: Fireman

His self proclaimed college plans: University of Oklahoma.

Little Man Nate

Nathan starts the first day of the fourth grade today. He had a rough day yesterday not getting the games he wanted on the final day of freedom and some other stuff going just a little foul so I hope his first day back goes well. I asked him if anything could be done yesterday to put him in a better mood and he piped up real quick "I could go to Incredible Pizza?" Good try kiddo.

I'm a dad to a nine year old in the 4th grade. Amazing.

Update: Nate's first words on the phone: "I totally scored with my teacher!" After a second of wondering if Debra Lafave was now teaching in Oklahoma, I came to understand he meant he got a teacher he likes.

Stars for Nathan

Nathan is making his first trip with me to New York today. I'm looking forward to all that I get to show him around the city. We have many good ideas so if you have any that you think a 9 year old would like to see, please give some input.

update: We've made it to NYC and found ourselves very whooped after getting unpacked and cramming some fragments of food into our mouth after not eating all day. Nate is loving NYC so far and can't wait to see what it looks like in the daylight.

Thanks for the comments, more input if you think of anything more or different. We are going to just go down and see what looks interesting to him with the week we have here.

update 2: A new Map at Wayfaring to keep track of it all.

update 3: If Your trying to find an address in NYC, Google Maps is obviously the best solution.

If you are trying to find your way from point A to point B in NYC via Subway then the Interactive Transit Map is the best solution.

If you want to Mark these places off so you can best plan a course of travel around NYC, Wayfaring is the best solution.

I just really wish someone would combine these great tools into one. Seems like it's not a hard stretch since they all use the Google Map API.

Today in the car

nathan: "Oh bother."
me: "heh, who says that?"
nathan: "Winnie the Pooh."
(pause)
nathan: (cracking himself up laughing)
me: "what?"
nathan: "I said poo(h)" (more self cracking up for about 5 miles)

Yea, good times.

Welcome Nathan

Paula and I have a new son I would like to introduce you to. He is a healthy little guy who has beautiful eyes and after the hard scrubbing the nurses gave him is returning to a nice skin color. I know it sounds cliche but when I saw him for the first time, I cried in a way I never have before.

Happy birthday Nathan!