Mike’s Blog

Oh, I’ve just gotta put this one up.

I am hereby predicting another last-place finish for Tampa.  Guess 12 years of watching Barry on ESPN wasn’t enough to prove to the Lightning’s new owners that Barry knows absolutely nothing about hockey.  (And as for how Barry was employed by ESPN for so long: ESPN doesn’t know a lick about hockey either.)

Lightning hires Barry Melrose as coach - NHL - Yahoo! Sports

Hard to believe my first Father’s Day as a dad has come and gone already.  This is an image of the card my darling daughter gave me (I suspect she had a little help from Mommy in making it, though):

Sarah is now 6 months and a week old.  Today was her six-month checkup - she’s now up to 14 lbs, 12 oz. and is 26.5 inches long, so she’s more than doubled her weight since birth now.  She started baby food a couple months ago and is now eating three regular meals a day, plus bottles in between meals to supplement, with the occasional baby biscuit.  She’s been flipping over for a while and seems like she’s just about to start crawling, which means I’d better get some gates installed around the house pronto.  I expect her teeth to start coming in very soon, too.

She’s definitely got her own personality by now.  She’s a very happy baby - when I check on her in the morning, if she’s awake she’ll let loose a huge smile when she sees me.  I can’t think of any better way to get my day off to a good start. She’s also very curious and very smart.  I love watching her study some new object, trying to figure out how it works or what its purpose is.  A good example is her new pool, which we got just last week.  Although she can’t sit up on her own quite yet, she’s fairly good at holding herself up if we put her in a sitting position - so we’ll sit her down and let her splash around in the pool.  She studied the water like there was going to be a quiz afterwards, with the most serious look on her face.  It’s the cutest thing.

My favorite part so far about being a dad is simply watching her grow up.  As an example, over the last week or two she’s started to use her hands to hold her own bottle.  She’s not consistent about it yet, but I can see her learn how seemingly right before my eyes.  It’s very common to see her doing things that just a week ago she hadn’t learned yet.

I love being a dad.