The Perils of PVR...(when living with 3 women)

As most of you all know I share a house with my beautiful wife Vanessa, my adorable daughter Ava (2), and my favorite cousin Patricia. We share a lot of laughs and good times, with very few squabbles. Herein lies my dilemma; we have a PVR and the current list of recording looks like this (# in brackets indicates number of recordings for that particular show):

Millionaire Matchmaker
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (7)
Thomas & Friends (5)
Oprah (2)**
WordWorld (2)
Young and the Restless (3)**
Sesame Street (2)
Criminal Minds*
The Middle*
Criminal Minds Suspect Behav. (2)*
Modern Family*
Castle (2)
Undercover Boss
Real Housewives of Orange County/Atlanta/NYC/Beverly Hills/New Jersey**
American Idol**
Survivor
Biggest Loser
Bethenny gets Married
Dr. Phil**
One Tree Hill**

Now granted, the ones with a * are shows I enjoy and will sit down and watch when I can. The girls will try to argue that I also enjoy the ones with ** but those shows and I have more of a "Stockholm Syndrome" relationship. You see I am subjected to them so much that I have no other choice to force myself to try to learn what is going on and who everyone is so I can try and understand what the attraction is. Much like a hostage who expresses adulation and has positive feelings towards their captors that can appear irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, essentially mistaking a lack of abuse from their captors as an act of kindness; hence the reference to Stockholm Syndrome.

All kidding aside, when I do express an interest to watch something I usually am granted the wish. I just hate asking for fear of the wrath of a woman scorned.

So, honey, that is why you often wake up at 3:00am on a Friday or Saturday night and I am not there anymore...I'm getting in some TV/PS3 time so we can all continue to get along and live in peace.

Love you girls...even you Patricia...just not the same way...you're my cousin...lol

italicized information from Wikipedia

Holy sheep dip...it's still here!

Well...what can I say...as a blogger I am a failure. Like many other things in my life I get all pumped for something, do it for a couple days and then it all falls off the rails. It has happened about 20 times with weight loss plans, side projects, and a real potpourri of other things.

I can say there are two things in my life that I have been able to keep constant are husband and father...I guess those are pretty lofty achievements on their own.

As a father, I can't believe the little 8lb15.5oz bear cub I held in my palm on March 20, 2009 is about to be 2!! Pardon my french...but SHIIIIIT! Where has the time gone? Now she is a hurricane, rolling from room to room leaving couch cushions and princess phones in her path. She is developing a voice and opinion of her own...really wish NO DADDY wasn't such a big part of her vocabulary, although it sounds cute sometimes (mostly the times when it isn't followed by double palms to the face). All of that aside she is such a precious joy to have as a daughter. I can't get over how smart she is, and often forget she is only 2 and have to remind myself of this when frustration looms. We, (Vanessa and I), are truly blessed to have such a happy, smart, little monkey on our hands.

Believe it or not adapting to being a partner in a relationship has been a harder adjustment for me than being a dad. After 11 years as a "Professional Bachelor" the adjustment to sharing life with someone has been a slow transition...mostly because I am stubborn and always right! All kidding aside, I am very lucky to have a wife who helps me grow into the partner I need to be.

Back to my comment about 20 failed attempts to lose weight I am embarking on my final attempt. I have listed too many reasons above to not embrace a wholesale lifestyle change and get myself in shape. I have been thinking the last couple of days about a list of short term goals and one long term goal. I will make those goals public here soon in the coming days and plan to utilize this blog to update my progress and still wax poetic about life as a dad. I follow a blogger by the name of Drew Magary, who recently lost a shit-ton of weight through a "humiliation diet" you can read about it here http://deadspin.com/#!5545674/the-public-humiliation-diet-a-how+to

I plan to loosely model my current expedition on this...loosely because I don't want to pay no royalties...

Stay tuned my friends...there will be days when I need my followers

"Snoop" Dougie Thompson

13 months old....WOWWWWWW

I can't believe my baby bear is already over a year old. It seems like just yesterday I was blogging about our first summer... What's that my dear readership? It's been over 7 months...shoot sorry about that, I'm going to have to plead 1 part busy with day to day baby assistance duties and 9 parts laziness.



Thank you to all those who came out to Ava's first birthday party, it was a huge success (if success is measured by my cupcake consumption), and we appreciate all the gifts she was given. I can't wait to show her how to sit in her new camp chair at the river with one eye on the bar rod, and one hand on her bottle, just like daddy.



Our little friend Brooklynn Hornsby invited us to her birthday party at the swimming pool, so I went out and bought some "L'il Swimmers" and off we went for our first ever swim. Ava loves the water and while I know she had a good time, all the other activities and screaming kids caused her a little apprehension. But, at the end of the day she definitely had a wonderful time, and was thoroughly tuckered out.



Ava is full on walking now, and gets around quite well. I can't get over how smart she is, but considering who her old man is...I am not surprised. She's going to be smart like me, and beautiful like her mom, I am going to need 2 shotguns.



Well, lunchbreak is over, I know I've said it before but I promise to keep this up and blog more often. Please sign up for google and become my follower. If you like my blog, there is another one out there by a guy named Drew Magary out of Washington DC, which is very entertaining and I get a lot of inspiration from. It's call "Father Knows Shit" (pardon the pottymouth).



So long for now, see you soon.



"Snoop" Doug Thompson

What a first summer!!!

My first summer as a Daddy was awesome!! I wouldn't trade it for anything, yeah it had it's ups and downs, but the ups way surpassed the downs. One thing I know for sure is that no matter how much you tell yourself that things don't change much, they do. The one thing that has changed the most is our relationship, it seems like we never get much time for each other and the ability to effectively communicate takes a big wrong turn at the end of the day when you're both tired. The one thing I constantly catch myself doing, and feeling very guilty about, is thinking that while I am at work things at home are all fun and play. I definitely take for granted how tiring it gets to be caring for and tending to a human being who can't tell you exactly what you need. It's not just naps and bottles, there is all the household things thrown in amongst it all, and once teething starts...I am very appreciative and grateful for everything mommies at home do, and I think that maternity pay should be the equal to what their working wage was prior to their leave. (Editor's note: NO I am not in the doghouse, nor was that a feeble attempt by me to get out of said doghouse, that is my heartfelt, rambling way of trying to say I love and appreciate my partner.)



Now onto the summer fun stuff; we kicked our summer off with a trip to Plato Island Resort at Quesnel Lake to show Vanessa and Ava where I spent my childhood summers fishing and camping with my Gramma and Grampa B. We had a great time, and it definitely brings back great memories of a great childhood. Upon returning from there we went on an excursion with Ava's Grandma and Grandpa Thompson to Nat Bailey stadium where we took in a nooner at the Nat for my birthday and then to Montana's for my favorite meal...RIBS. These excursions are definitely way more do-able with a happy baby such like Ava. Later on in July my cousin Jason and his family visited from Ottawa and my family and I went to have dinner with him at MY gramma and grampa Thompson's, was really good to see them. On July 24 Vanessa, Ava, and I treated my dad to an evening game at the Nat followed by a fireworks display, it was stupendous and Ava was so cute as she covered her ears during the fireworks. We were even treated to a great game of baseball.

August brought us more nice weather, and we spent the first 2 weeks housesitting for my mom and dad while they tootled around in their truck and trailer. It was in this 2 weeks where Ava really started to show her personality, cooing a lot more and she rolled over for the first time on August 4th and she is now spinning around on her belly and squirming to try and get things within her grasp. I predict she'll be crawling by 6months...now if I could just get her potty trained. On August 21 I thought it would be a good idea to take Ava and Vanessa to their first ever PNE experience, I learned a lot that day:

1) Don't undertake such a big adventure without any breakfast...or lunch for that matter before leaving into the city.

2) Parking costs $20 if you want to be within 20 minute hike to fairgrounds. There is a reason the kind residents let you park in their alley for $10 (see below).

3) Just because someone is one block from the fairgrounds offering you $10 parking doesn't mean it's close as they ask you to follow them, then they walk 15 blocks to their alley.

4) Don't believe everything you see on the news DEEP FRIED JELLY BELLIES ARE DISGUSTING. So far the only obscure things that are good deep fried are turkey and ice cream.

5) After seeing my uncle "Buffalo Bill" Beaulieu run his new pig/duck racing venture, I am very confident in my decision to have him co-MC our wedding.

6) Above mentioned lack of protein causes usually overprotective mothers to seriously lapse in judgment and allow complete strangers hold our baby...thankfully she replied with a terse "NO" when asked if it was alright to "...just go over there..." with said offspring.

This summer also saw me "teach" Vanessa how to golf, and then have her show me up in a tournament. There was a trip to White Rock followed by a nasty tissue infection requiring IV therapy for me, visits to my friend Bob who is bravely battling Oesophageal Cancer he's looking a lot better and he brought me back Mickey Mouse ears after taking his family to Disneyland. There was a trip to our wedding venue to view it in bloom, followed by a jaunt over the new Golden Ears bridge.

Well that's all for now, I am rambling and have probably lost a reader or two by now, there are some new pictures of Ava up on my facebook, for my FB friends. I'm not going to make any promises as to the next blog, but thank you to my reader(s) for your patience, and I'll try harder.

Doug

The things we take for granted...

Last night Vanessa and I took Ava over to my Grandma and Grandpa Thompson's house for dinner and a visit with my cousin Jason, who was here visiting from Ottawa with his beautiful family. As I sat and watched as Ava was being passed about and Grandma was holding and talking to her, I was thinking how lucky she was to have not only 2 sets of AWESOME grandparents, but she also has 4 great grandmothers and 2 great grandfathers. It didn't dawn on me until a little while later how I was equally lucky growing up. I had 2 of the best sets of grandparents anyone could ask for. I now know why summer vacation always went by so fast, because between Grandma and Grandpa Beaulieu and Grandma and Grandpa Thompson, my summers were packed with so many adventures be it camping at Quesnel Lake, Jackson's Hole, or going to a wedding in Terrace; from having a season's pass to Expo 86, going to Lion's Games, and chasing trains from Milner to Whistler to roadside bathroom breaks on Dewdney Trunk. Grandma and Grandpa (B&T) gave me a childhood to remember. Of course this is not to take anything away from all the rest of the time that my parent's always made sure I had everything I needed to fully enjoy childhood. I think about all this, and combine it with the ongoing battle of my Aunties to be my "favorite" Aunt and now Ava's "favorite" Great Aunt, and I feel blessed and excited for my little girl's childhood. I might not be able to always afford to give her everything she wants, but I'll never hold her back from all her ambitions, and besides isn't that what "Favorite" Great Aunts and Grandparents are for, buying her things.

I'll be back soon, I swear!! I want to try and post more often, as often as I am inspired.

Dougie

Holy Sheep Dip...time flies.

Well, I'd like to start off by apologizing to my legions of followers out there who I know probably check in multiple times per day to see what I've written lately, and I can just imagine the dismay on their faces when they load the page to see nothing new.

Baby Ava is going to be 11 weeks old this coming Friday, and she is growing like a weed. Her feedings have increased throughout the day, but the beautiful thing is that she is generally asleep by 11:00pm and then is out until 6:00-7:00am. There is the occasional night when she wakes up for a 2:30 feed, but life is good again as far as sleep goes. It's also amazing how my perception of sleeping in has changed too. A year ago I could have easily slept the morning away until noon on a Saturday or Sunday, now the Sunday morning when Vanessa let's me sleep in until 8:00 is something to get excited about.

Some things that have happened in the last 6 weeks of my blogging absence:

• Ava has developed quite the personality, she smiles big smiles for anyone who comes to talk to her
• I made her giggle, and thus far am the only one who can do it on a regular basis
• Mommy had a little bout with Post Partum Mood Disorder, but I think the worst of it is behind us now and there is a huge light at the end of the tunnel.

I love my girls so much, and am so thankful for both of them....time to end this, because Princess Ava is just waking up from her little nappy poo, and wants a bah-bah.

Until next time,

Dougie "Big Poppa" Thompson

Outsmarted by a 5 week old...

Here we are now past the one month old date, and already my little girl has her parents well trained...I had delusions of grandeur that it would be the other way around!! This past Saturday night she decided she'd get up at 3:00am for a feeding. Being a Saturday night, and she is on formula, I let Vanessa sleep and I got up to feed her. By 4:00 she was fed, and clean diapered...yet nothing could get her to sleep. Unfortunately for me the only thing on TV was Miss. Congeniality, or the infomercial for Magic Bullet. Having seen that infomercial for 32 total hours on my weekend baby patrols, thank heavens for a near maxed Visa card or I'd have 8 of them, I had no other option but the corny beauty pageant schlock starring Sandra Bullock. As we neared closer to 5:00am, and no sign of sleepiness from sweetpea, I tried to play the guilt trip card on her, to which she responded with an ear to ear gummy grin that just melted my heart. It was at that exact moment in time that I realized I didn't care if she kept me up non-stop for the next 1000 hours, I would treasure every second of it. No matter how exhausted I get, I would never trade it for anything else in this world than to see my little baby look at me with that smile.

I promise the posts will be more current, I am done coaching rugby this week, so I will have that extra time to catch up my rest, and have enough mental stamina to post, time to get back to the gym hard again too, because before I know it, (and I'm not rushing it), I'm going to be chasing this little munchking all over the place.