Can't Stop

Greetings everyone! Quite a lot to talk about so let's get right into it. It was busy week and through the early week, I worked on what drills we'd work on Thursday. It was Mia's first practice in a few weeks and she was excited to get back into it. While her teammates prior did a speed drill test for a time trial, she wanted to do it as well. So we set up cones before practice and Mia did her first run. Unbelievably, she had the fastest time on her FIRST run. Her 2nd run, she beat that run! I was shocked. I love Mia to death, but she's not always the fastest but she proved the soccer camp helped her with speed and ball control. When I read off all the times to the kids, I think some were a bit surprised by Mia's as well. I hope I can encourage her more to use that speed in our upcoming match this weekend. We worked on finishing, passes, crosses and PK's. I even brought back Sharks and Minnows which the kids really enjoyed. At the time, I thought our upcoming match would be against the 2nd place team. I was nervous because during our practice, some of the girls were a bit silly. My assistant coach Kevin was way more nervous that because they were playing at 8:30am, and he typically is concerned with the girls getting enough sleep. Friday after work, Mia was asleep so luckily, I wasn't really worried about her.

Saturday morning came. Ryan confessed that her and Charlie were up till 12am Friday night. Remember kid when we said don't stay up too late? Oh well. It was our 4th match of the season and definitely our coldest so far. Our keeper Olivia stayed in net the whole match for two reasons. 1-She was cold and wanted to keep the long sleeve goalie jersey on, and 2- our 2nd half Ava didn't want to play goalie Saturday. The Ice Breakers took on the Neon Green team again. The game started pretty even but after a bit, we started netting in goal after goal. Alice and Ryan started piling them in. Cecilia had a great assist to Ryan's goal which I hope she was proud of. Sadly, Ava picked up an injury and sat out quite a bit of the 2nd half. Her Dad and 2nd assistant coach Jim iced her foot for a while, she walked around trying to shake off what looked like an injury to her bridge of the foot. We didn't see how she picked it up, but it certainly didn't look like she would be in the rest of the match. Linnea moved up to wing and picked up a slick goal. After Alice put in her 6 (yes 6) goal, she started switching her strategy to setting up goals for Cecilia and Mia. Both girls were desperate to score but couldn't find the back of the net. Alice was super kid setting them up with pass after pass...so close. The game ended 8-1. Before the match, I had saw the Hornets had bumped us out of 1st place and we dropped to 2nd because they (who are also undefeated) had more goals than us. Hopefully with our big win, we'll move back to 1st. The girls looked fierce and this Saturday, we take on that team. One of us will lose our undefeated record, unless it goes to a draw. I'm anticipating a close one with hopefully the Ice Breakers coming out on top!

After the match we went home, and Mia and I watched the rest of the Chelsea vs Brighton match. The Blues finally got a league win at home. Woo!! After wards we all (Jill and Grandma and Grandpa)went  on an adventure to the Bear Den Zoo in Waterford. I've always heard great things about it, so I was stoked we could go check it out. Immediately, Mia fell in love with the kittens, bunnies and little chicks out front. She could have spent all day playing with them, but alas it was time to explore the other animal areas. We saw porcupines, foxes, ducks, turkeys, a bear, alpacas and plenty plenty more. Mia loved holding the baby kangaroo for a short while. She was super sweet and absolutely adorable. For the first time in years, Mia even rode a pony, Montana. We went back to the kitties before heading home. Mia had a really hard time leaving that area. She was in love with these kittens but we just can't have another one. The silent tears on our ride home were tough. She wouldn't talk to anyone. We picked up some late lunch before I went over to my friend Nichole's baby shower in West Allis. So stoked she's having a little girl.

Early Saturday morning, my brother and Dad did the Honor Flight for the U.S. Veterans so later, we all met at the airport to celebrate them returning home. There was an insane amount of people there to greet these veterans which was a total surprise. Some vets were clearly shocked and emotional with tears as they shook hands and waved. Others acted like total rock stars hyping the crowd. My Dad was shocked to see us and had great things to say about the trip. Glad Andy and him could enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime event. Mia was so exhausted that she crashed on our ride home. Jill and I had a little food while watching a Netflix comedy special before crashing before 2am.

Today was a rainy one. Jill was unfortunately suffering from a gnarly headache so Mia relaxed, we edited her video from the Bear Den Zoo and she took a bath before I went to work. This week, soccer practice, our big match Saturday to hopefully secure 1st place and celebrating Tommy's birthday. That's all for now thanks for reading!!

Kindess Counts

Good evening everyone! Quite the busy week as usual. I just had to get to the mid-week to enjoy 3 busy days off. The previous week I had applied for a social media marketing position but unfortunately after getting the assessment test this week, I got an email that I wasn't the right fit. The test was timed and pretty difficult so I didn't feel too confident before getting the email. Ugh. The salary was perfect and the duties seemed up my alley. Oh well. Back to the grind looking for a job to replace my current one.

During the week, I did some Lightroom editing of the photos I took of Mia in her various outfits and I think they turned out pretty good. Totally stoked about it. Watched some of the Chelsea vs Frankfurt match Thursday. 1-1 draw so they'll take them on this week at The Bridge. Friday was High Interest Day at Mia's school. It's always a huge event and this was my 3rd year participating. Despite the request that Mia should wear an OL spirit shirt, we decided to rebel and wear similar Alkaline Trio shirts :) I co-lead a rock painting class. It was a super fun day teaching for an afternoon some specific rock painting and blending techniques. The kids had a great time and I'll be returning next year to do the same thing. Mia's super stoked that when she's a 3rd grader, she'll have a bigger variety of classes to chose from which will include the rock painting one. She did some string art, slime making, pony beads and some community service work. After lunch, I surprised the diva and her crazy friends at recess. They did a foot race before the recess was over.

I had a few more classes before the session ended. I had planned on returning home till it was time to pick up Mia, but I ended up helping tear down some stuff in the lunch room and waited till they were done with the assembly. All in all, really fun day. Later, we went to my nephews soccer match. The kids team didn't win, but they certainly had a lot of fun. We had dinner with my bro and his family after before calling it a day.

Saturday Mia received the Youth Community Kindness Award from HAWS at the Romp n Rally in Sussex. Unfortunately, she built up a lot of pressure and got super nervous. Way too nervous to go up in front alone to receive her award. They even tried to give her a puppy to bring up to relax her and she just couldn't do it. In the end, I went up there with her with ol' Fluttershy Mia who turned herself around so no one could look at her. We were super proud of her as well as both of our parents of all the hard work Mia's done for  the animal shelter. Ugh. We walked around a bit, picked up a few things and headed out.

Mia didn't have a lot of time before having to go do her dance photos in her 3 different costumes. They looked pretty good and she was glad when it was over. The photos turned out pretty good as well. On the ride back home, Mia stated that this will be her very last year doing dance. She said it's become too easy for her and after this June's recital wants to be done with it. Interesting. Guess we'll see what peaks her interest after dance is done. I very cautiously let her fly my DJI Spark drone for the very first time before returning to the studio to pick up Jill. She had a really good time and I had hoped to get some photos from it, but the sun blew out the image so I need to do some color correcting before flying the Spark again.

We watched some of the new Goosebumps movie before crashing. I did some drawing as well. Today, I watched the 1st half of the Chelsea vs Watford match before we drove to a church to photograph a communion. It went pretty well and even better 2nd half for Chelsea as they won 3-0 securing a spot in the UCL next season. Now we just need Hazard to sign a new deal and we're good.

This week, back to normal work. Jill's got some dance academy photos to do and from what I've heard, the weather is supposed to be hella lousy. Blah. Luckily Mia enjoyed what she could today. Thanks for reading!

The Joy of Nothing

Evening everyone. Another weird week in the books. Weird, meaning 60s-70s for 2 days this week followed by tons of wind, chilly temps and snow. Yes. More snow. So many complaining customers. Like complaining actually does anything, right? Watched Chelsea take on Prague and West Ham this week. Two great wins. Certainly didn't help them today, but we'll get back to that.

Friday when I got home from work, Mia and Jill were sleeping with the kitty. Super cute. Saturday, we didn't have anything planned for the day, which was really really nice. Sure, we did stuff, but the fact that NOTHING was on a schedule was super great. I think at times, we don't realize that just having nothing major to do, is absolutely amazing. I really needed to catch up on some sleep, but we still were up by at least 8:30. We ended up taking the bin full of hand-made dog toys by the kids from Orchard Lane to HAWS. They were so happy. Mia enjoyed checking out all the cats, dogs and bunnies after wards. Later when we got home, Jill made some incredibly tasty mini peanut butter cheesecakes for me. Today, she made some Easter macarons while I was at work. She's something else when it comes to baking. We're so proud that Mia is just as talented as her  Mom when it comes to food. Speaking of which, one of her BFFs and Mia will be participating in a cooking class at a real Italian restaurant in Tosa. She's super excited especially that she gets to do it with her friend Charlie. She's so stoked that it's in a real kitchen.

Today was a big game for Chelsea taking on Liverpool. Super nervous about this one. Chelsea played pretty well the 1st half with Liverpool putting on the stress. 2nd half, the jackasses score 2 goals very quickly. So frustrated. Hazard had some great shots and chances to even the game but they just couldn't pull it back. They got their first win at home against the Blues since 2012. Pretty much ruined the rest of the day. Chelsea had a busy week and with a defender injured, Liverpool didn't have much trouble taking advantage of this one. Hate them so much. Hopefully Arsenal doesn't win their upcoming match and we can somehow stay in 4th. Work was work as the snow flew literally day.

This week should be a quick one. Mia's got a performance at school Wednesday and she's pretty thrilled that she gets to play tambourine. :) The weekend will be busy with two different Easter celebrations and Mia will start Easter break on Friday. Lunch note wise, I'm drawing villains all week for Mia. Should be pretty fun. The weather is supposed to improve as well.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

A reflection of, wait, she's TWO YEARS OLD ALREADY??

Greetings readers! A week from today, Mia turns 2. It's crazy how fast the last year went. Last year around this time, I made some points and reflected on what I learned in my first year as a Dad, and gave advice as well. Tonight, I'll once again, reflect on the last year.

After she hit one, she had a good amount of teeth in her mouth, but throughout the year, she teethed, and teethed HARDCORE. We had some pretty rough nights with her sitting up for many hours. I was told many times by people "just put booze on her gums" but it just wasn't gonna happen, sorry folks. Somehow, we got through the teething stage, and currently, it would appear that all of her pearly whites are in.

She mastered walking this year as well. It was pretty awesome to watch, actually. This little bugger crawling a bit at her very first Christmas, and at her 2nd Christmas, she was running around giving out presents to people yelling out "OH MY GOODNESS PRESENTS!" One of my favourite things to do with her, is just simply walk with her hand and hand through the stores. It's even more enjoyable when I'm off the same night with Jill and we can walk with Mia together. Like tonight, roaming Mayfair Mall. I'm sure the people behind us didn't care for it, but screw it, this is our family night together!

She's developed a lovely picky eater attitude. REALLY loves cheese in its many forms. String, shredded, grilled cheese etc. Luckily, she loves the different fruit packets, eats bananas and of course, and noodles (also in it's many forms). Veggies are tricky with her, but it's a work in progress. Like most kids. She's not a big fan of meat, except hotdogs and some chicken.

Over the last year, she fully developed her creative side. Both art and music occupy that part of her little brain. She has created all kinds of different water colour/acrylic/ finger paintings. She also loves to colour and create "birthday cakes" out of Play Dough. Always says "happy birthday" to whomever she makes it for. One of my favourite activities with her is drumming. She really rips on the drums. Over the last year, she got more confident with playing on my kit. Used to require my lap to sit on, and would noodle around a bit. In recent videos, she's developed some awesome chops and kills it on the snare while sitting on the throne solo.

Car rides have gotten somewhat better over the last year. Still, we bring the portable DVD player in the back for those long drives to Illinois just in case. Surprisingly, we haven't had to use it in the last few car trips to Chi-town. In fact, she prefers to sing songs on the drive. Whatever keeps her happy and as long as it isn't Beiber.

Mia knows all of her major colours, can do the ABC's perfectly, knows some shapes, can count to 20 roughly, and can name off animals and their sounds really well. Going to the zoo quite often over the last year really helped in that category too. Plus, she's got quite a bit of animal books. Her vocabulary really developed over the year as well. By One, it was the basic "Momma, Dadda, Grandma, Grandpa". Soon, she was repeating phrases, animal noises, etc etc. Even at the doctor check up recently they said "she says way more then a normal 2 year old does". Aw, our little chatterbox :)

One of my other favourite things that she's working on is playing soccer. Well, kicking the ball, really. We've kicked her soccer ball around our house and Grandma/Grandpa's house a few times on those cold winter days. Can't wait to get out in the park and play with her again. Last year, we hit the park a few times, so I'm going to try to do more when this white crap melts.

It's been a crazy year with it's ups and downs, but we're loving every minute of our beautiful daughter. I couldn't imagine a better child in my life and look forward to whats in store for us in the next year. Thanks for reading everyone!