I realized recently that I joined this board 10 years ago today, have now made 2,000 posts (many self-deleted 
), enjoyed a whole lot of good times IRL, also some great and bad. The emotional rollercoaster of being a Cats fan, pretty much losing my biological brother to addiction and watching my brother-in-law succumb to cancer, getting hitched a couple of years ago and becoming mostly an adult have made the decade quite the journey.
Time for my best post ever: a month after my BIL tragically passed, my wife and I discovered we were expecting our first child and at week 12 we found out it’s going to be a boy. At his week 20 ultrasound he was 30% larger than expected and so far looks perfectly healthy (knocked on wood, fingers crossed, prayers on that).
And, yes, football sadly will be out. I had a few concussions growing up - one from football, others from boyhood stuff - and any sport with a high rate of them is out. I’ll do my damnedest to keep him off the gridiron, out of wrestling / rugby, and nowhere near a boxing ring.
At my peak height in high school I measured 6’8 and a half inches tall but never really played organized basketball: my wife is only 5’7 but is two inches taller than her dad and had a nice lacrosse run when she was younger. If he’s near my height or above, basketball will be the main sport I follow when he’s older - if shorter, baseball / lacrosse / golf sure seem appealing.
I’m certainly dumber than I once was but had potential as a young man - my wife is much smarter and was tested at an IQ of 137. So if things go well, he’ll be doing something bright with his future and hopefully have a much better life than either of us have had (which should be every parent’s wish). If he digs sports, hopefully he’ll be committing to NU or another top-notch academic school. If he doesn’t do sports then I guarantee he will be on a team of some sort, whether speech & debate or robotics: our district’s high school has a top one of each.
Anyway I won’t be able to post much next year as we care for a newborn and I wanted to report on this before things get too busy. Sorry for all of my intense posts lately as life has been quite the whirlwind - but if my boy is happy & healthy it’ll of course all be worth it.
Any parenting advice?
), enjoyed a whole lot of good times IRL, also some great and bad. The emotional rollercoaster of being a Cats fan, pretty much losing my biological brother to addiction and watching my brother-in-law succumb to cancer, getting hitched a couple of years ago and becoming mostly an adult have made the decade quite the journey.Time for my best post ever: a month after my BIL tragically passed, my wife and I discovered we were expecting our first child and at week 12 we found out it’s going to be a boy. At his week 20 ultrasound he was 30% larger than expected and so far looks perfectly healthy (knocked on wood, fingers crossed, prayers on that).
And, yes, football sadly will be out. I had a few concussions growing up - one from football, others from boyhood stuff - and any sport with a high rate of them is out. I’ll do my damnedest to keep him off the gridiron, out of wrestling / rugby, and nowhere near a boxing ring.
At my peak height in high school I measured 6’8 and a half inches tall but never really played organized basketball: my wife is only 5’7 but is two inches taller than her dad and had a nice lacrosse run when she was younger. If he’s near my height or above, basketball will be the main sport I follow when he’s older - if shorter, baseball / lacrosse / golf sure seem appealing.
I’m certainly dumber than I once was but had potential as a young man - my wife is much smarter and was tested at an IQ of 137. So if things go well, he’ll be doing something bright with his future and hopefully have a much better life than either of us have had (which should be every parent’s wish). If he digs sports, hopefully he’ll be committing to NU or another top-notch academic school. If he doesn’t do sports then I guarantee he will be on a team of some sort, whether speech & debate or robotics: our district’s high school has a top one of each.
Anyway I won’t be able to post much next year as we care for a newborn and I wanted to report on this before things get too busy. Sorry for all of my intense posts lately as life has been quite the whirlwind - but if my boy is happy & healthy it’ll of course all be worth it.
Any parenting advice?
