Husband, Father, Athlete, Runner, Marathoner, Mental Health Warrior

I must admit, nothing made me feel more proud than watching my wife and our daughters open their gifts Christmas morning. See, I’m a simple man, and if you want to laugh at me, go ahead. But Lynyrd Skynyrd had it right when they wrote the song. My Dad passed along that mentality to me long before the song ever came out. But that is the generation I come from. Between August being one daughter’s birthday, our Anniversary in September, our other daughter’s birthday in October and mine, and Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s, and then my wife’s birthday (HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY, BABY), then Valentine’s Day, I have learned one major thing: SHOP EARLY LOL. I refuse to be one of those clueless guys walking around the mall the day before a major holiday. So I start shopping/collecting, sometime in June/July. So I have anywhere up to 6 months of anticipation for my wife to open her gifts. I try to get a variety of gifts based on funny, personal, romantic, et...

So this past weekend we, as many parents did, took our daughters to go see Disney’s “The Princess And The Frog”. Without exaggeration, this has become my number 1 favorite children’s movie. Yes I am aware of all of the “controversy” that surrounded this movie. First off, it featured a Black, Female Leading character (she’s not really a Princess, but go see the movie, and that will be covered), who wasn’t the typical Damsel in Distress. Funny, people had their underpants in a wad over how Disney would handle its first African-American Princess, yet no one has seen the subtle slide Disney has done over the illustrious years. Ever notice all of their minority female leads have NEVER needed to be saved, and actually did the saving for their male counterparts?? Don’t believe me: Esmeralda from Hunchback, Pocahontas, Mulan, Lilo AND her big sister, and here we are with Tiana. It is usually the Caucasian Princesses that need a man to be complete. Interesting… But having 2 daughters, I was so ...

No seriously, I am. I have heard some qualified and non-qualified people alike tell me I’m a good parent, and others tell me that I’m a bad parent. The girls will, completely on their own, just say, “Papi, you’re a good Papi”. My wife tells me all of the time that I do a good job. To be honest….I don’t know. I know parenting is (and I am just speaking in the simplest terms) like being a Point Guard in Basketball or a Cornerback in Football. Even with the designed plays you’ve practiced over an over again, even with everything you have read, and everything you told yourself, you are still pretty much “Read & React”. In a basketball game, a Point Guard’s sole job is to lead the team on the court. They are to not only see what is happening in front of them, but to see the entire court, and anticipate what will happen next. They don’t score a lot; they make their teammates better and put them in position to score. In a football game, the Cornerback’s job is to read the QB. To ...