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This Friday before Valentine’s Day, let me just join PJ Mullen in saying ‘I hate Valentine’s Day!‘ That being said, I find myself this Valentine season thinking about how I went from a nerdy kid who hated Valentine’s Day because I couldn’t get (read muster up the courage to get) a girl, to a husband and father with four Valentines that hates being told there’s one particular day to celebrate your love. Although I generally do not enjoy planning the future further out than tomorrow, I find myself looking to the future for my 4 Valentines…

Tristin

It’s easy to envision a bright new world in the sparkling blue eyes of a nearly six-month old baby boy. Has it really been six months? It seems like I was just blogging his birth from the hospital room!

This coming week, Tristin will eat his first solid food, or as solid as baby food can get. The days of sweet-smelling yellow poo will be over, and soon will arrive the stinky poo. I can’t wait.

Although it’s certainly too early to see the interests that my son will have, there is a gleam of curiosity and possible mischievousness that I can’t wait to watch develop. Barely sitting up, this boy is already reaching and grabbing at anything that comes near him. Snatching the glasses off of my face is a favorite triumph, as well as grabbing at whatever food the person that’s holding him is eating. He’ll be a handful, but if I have survived his sister thus far, I think I’ll be alright.

Which brings me to…

Calli

If anyone can be described as a fireball, Calli can. Even while watching TV, this kid is on the move. We very nearly have to tie her down at night to get her to go to bed. (Not literally, please don’t call social services. I know how things posted on the internet can get…)

I have never met a more compassionate child. If one of us is sick or in pain, she is the first one there to offer condolences and see if there’s something she can do to help.

Nothing is more important to her than her family. In fact, as I’m writing this, she’s singing ‘One Big Happy Family!’ from a Winnie the Pooh DVD that she loves. She often reminds us that we are one big happy family.

Kat

Very rarely does the elusive Teenager allow her picture to be taken, so please excuse the reissue of her Halloween pic!

I find that it’s hard to convey what I feel about the Teenager. She’s a teenager, so she drives me crazy with the constant texting, IMing, Facebooking, and anime watching, often (literally!) at the same time.

But then she’ll turn around and say something that blows me away.

It doesn’t take much for us to push each other’s buttons, and my wife constantly tells me not to egg Kat on. But that’s just the relationship we’ve built, and I think it’s rock-solid.

Tomorrow we’re driving down to Denver to learn about the People to People program. They want to send Kat to Australia this summer. Her dream is to work with animals, so their brochure that claims you can ‘cuddle with a koala’ is just too irresistible to not at least go see what they have to say. I’ve heard these things are pretty expensive, but I can’t let an opportunity like this pass her by. Any ideas for fund raising is certainly welcome!

Which brings me to…

Bobbette

My wife and I celebrated five years of wedded bliss this past November, and ten years of being together. Did I mention time flying earlier in this post?

What can I say? I just re-read my Wedding Anniversary post, ‘My So-Called Romantic Life‘, and naturally, it doesn’t begin to encompass what I am truly feeling. As much as I love my kids, and as much as I center my life around them, Bobbette is the one I have made the conscious choice to be with, and she with me. Years from now, when the kids have grown and flown, we’ll have each other.

There is no one in the Universe I would rather have at my side. Quite literally, you would not be reading this blog if not for her. She provides me with daily inspiration and much needed encouragement. She instills me with the sense that I can accomplish anything. When I feebly make a mess of something, she’s there to pick up the pieces.

She’s strong when I’m weak, smart when I’m stupid, fearless when I’m  a coward.

I like to think that I do the same for her, but I am certain that I am getting the better end of this particular deal.

I have to work on Valentine’s Day, so we’ve agreed that, yes, we’ll contribute to the commercialism of the day, but we’ll do it the day after – at 50% off! Luckily, Calli, who is oh-so looking forward to it can’t read a calendar!

I’d like to take one final moment to thank all of you for sticking around and sharing this life with me. I suppose I could have said I have five Valentines, you being the fifth. Without readers, I would have given up on this whole blogging thing long ago. Without the community of friends that we have built, I’d think I was wasting my time.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about me and my family as much as I have enjoyed reading about many of you and yours. Have a great Fatherhood Friday, and a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

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Candy Candy candycandycandy...

Yesterday I blogged about our Halloween preparations. Last night we got to put that to the test. Could Calli walk up to strangers and say ‘Chick or Cheek’? Or would she clam up and clutch her black kitty bucket tightly to her Wonder Woman insignia? We went to Minturn’s Trick or Treat village to find out.

Before I go any further, we failed as proud blogging parents last night and didn’t get pictures. I know, I know. My wife had thrown the camera into some weird setting and the flash wouldn’t go off. I was too busy holding Tristin (who makes a pretty cute tiger if I do say so myself) and keeping him warm to play with the camera. I have since fixed the problem and we will have plenty of pics from today, I promise.

Now that I’ve got that nasty business out of the way…

Minturn was great. A lot of houses and businesses went all out. It’s one of those communities where the businesses and homes are all just kind of jumbled. But it makes for a great trick or treating experience. Hit a few houses, get cold, step in to a business and warm up. (Especially the guys giving away the ‘treats for adults’: peppermint schnapps! Thanks, guys!)

We covered all the basics in this one, albeit short (it was so cold we only lasted half an hour) trick or treat outing:

Calli cried at one kid in some kind of Wolfman costume. We’re talking howling crying here. The skeleton people a few houses down were no problem.

We got enough tootsie rolls to prematurely pull all of her teeth out.

We were followed for a few houses by a drunk guy that told Calli, (best Barney impression from the Simpsons) ‘Heeey, Wonner Woman! Don’t get your lasso out on me! I don’t wanna tella truth!’ *sigh*

Calli did say ‘Chick or Cheek’ at nearly every stop, albeit timidly. But if someone said, ‘Can you say trick or treat?’ … Nothin’.

On the way home, Calli complained that her feet were cold and they hurt because they were so cold.

But at home?

‘Calli, was trick or treating fun?’

‘Yeah, Daddy!’

‘You wanna do it again tomorrow?’

‘Yeah, Daddy! Yeah Daddy! Supergirl! Whoosh!’

‘Ya know, when Mommy and me were kids, we only got one Halloween…’

‘OK, Daddy!’

Right now she’s still asleep and I’m creating a Halloween CD for our trick or treat tour of the valley. We’ll carve a pumpkin and set candy out for any neighborhood trick or treaters, and run around everywhere. I never got a costume. Maybe I can cut some holes in a sheet and carry rocks around in a paper sack…

Or maybe I’ll just laugh with my kids for a while!