Kids and Birthdays

We are having my youngest son's 1st birthday this Saturday. My 3 year old (who is a great big brother) is already asking "What time is my birthday going to be?"

Anyone have any suggestions how to keep a 3 yr old from feeling neglected at his little brother's first B-Day party?

Thanks!

Being sick sucks!!!

So it's been a while since I posted. Got sick something fierce. As noted last week, the Los Garcia clan has been hit hard with various forms of viral infections.

I was the last to go down. Mild fever, runny nose, some kind of throat virus, dry cough, a bout of the runs, and lastly(for the first time in my life) pinkeye. I know what you're thinking but I'm sorry ladies, I'm already spoken for, so I won't be giving out my phone number.

Been feeling better for a couple of days now, as have the kids. Sadly though, my wife is still coughing through the night. Still, she's better than she was last week when her ear drum burst from an ear infection gone horribly wrong. I hate when that happens. My poor wife!

Ooops

My apologies to those of you who tried to leave comments. I think the problem is fixed. I hope.
Comment your little hearts out.

Thanks for your patience,
Joe

There's no easy way out

I think it was a week ago today.

My stepmom and I needed to get out of the house, so we took up my brother's invitation to go over to his house. His wife is a pretty good cook, and my brand new niece was there, so it was a no brainer. My youngest brother was there with his fiance too. It was a welcome distraction.

We talked about my dad, the memorial service, who would be speaking at the service, all the stuff we needed to talk about.

Then the conversation changed. I'm not sure who brought it up, but someone put it out there. I'm talking about the wonder that is...the Rocky IV Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. And as soon as it was mentioned, one of us began singing (scatting?) the drum intro to Robert Tepper's masterpiece "There's No Easy Way Out". Suddenly another jumped in with the driving bass hook that carries the listener to the first lyric, "We're not indestructible/Baby baby guess that true..." (you probably know the rest, so I won't write it out here). All while images of angst-ridden Rocky driving his Lambroghini through uptown Philly, remembering his fallen friend/rival Apollo completely threw us back to 1987. Turns out each of us has the R4 soundtrack on a different form of media. Myself, I have it on vinyl. Each of us agreed that not only are there no bad songs on the disc, but each song holds up incredibly well. And we will pass this album on to our children's children.

I should probably mention that it was only the Garcia boys that showed any kind of passion during this part of the conversation. For the most part, our little tangent was met with blank stares from those waiting for a point. We were also the only ones who remembered that "Ya sie byaht! YAH SIE BYAHT!!!" is Russian for "I fight for me. FOR ME!!!"

I've not been particularly close with my brothers. I think all of us want to make it a point for that to change. It was good for me to experience that moment where, for whatever reason, we were all on the same page, excited about the same thing. I look foward to more of those moments.

Sylvester Stallone, bringing brothers together.

Be it ever so humble

It's been a crazy month or so. The business with my dad had been going on for about a month before I was able to get up there to help. And by help I mean stand around until someone asks for something. I probably felt more useless than I was. At least I hope so...

I was gone all of last week, seeing my dad's last days, being a support for my stepmom, planning for the memorial service. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It's just that I'm not the type who really, really likes doing stuff. Cat-like in my relaxation am I. So I've been a bit tired lately.

I was more than ready to come home again. Missed my wife, missed my sons fiercely. It was really good to get home and feel like I was home again. Even liked going back to work, because it was a routine I was used to. Actually, I liked going back to work because I get to drive around a lot. Fix some phones. Feeling useful.

Anyway, I still feel really tired. Ususally sleeping isn't a problem for me. Every time I blinked, I used to run the risk of falling asleep. And, I could sleep through most natural disasters. Not so much now.

Also, everyone else has been sick this week. From my 1 yr old son to my 93 yr old grandpa (he lives next door), they've all been leaking through various orifices all week! My poor wife. My poor sons. My poor mom. ugh! I think a big part of me just wants them well so they can take care of me...hmm. But I know I'm still a bit skittish as I watch them all be sick. Just want to be sure they get well again. I'd really like some well people to hang out with.

Well that didn't take long...

So yesterday was my dad's memorial service. Not too bad. The thing about Mexican, or Latin services is that there are invariably family there that you swear you've never seen before. Yet somehow, they know you.

My dad's family is pretty large. (One family I met were part of a clan in which 13 kids came from the same woman!). Many of them closely resemble my dad. At the wake following the memorial service, there were countless times that I'd see a guy out of the corner of my eye and I'd think "Oh, here comes dad. It's about time!" Simultaneously, the guy would come into focus and the realization that I was at my dad's wake would hit me, and I'd just think, "Dang!"

I was only awake maybe 12 minutes yesterday morning before I found myself neck deep in a family secret and was myself sworn to secrecy. The combination of wanting to focus on the afternoon's service and the "eeww"-factor made it easy not to think about it for most of the day. So on the way home from the wake when I was finally able to tell my wife about it (1- I had spent far too many days apart from her this week, including this one. 2- There are very few secrets I keep from her. And the ones I do keep she knows about. Mostly they're things shared in confidence when people are seeking counsel.), we spent a great deal of time wondering out loud "What?!? How...When...But didn't they..Are you sure? Why?" before finally resolving it was best not to think about it. A task that proved difficult if not impossible. It was soon after that when I thought that the best thing to do was call dad, because if anybody could help put things in perspective it was him. It took a good 2 or 3 minutes before I realized why this wouldn't work out.

This is one thing I will miss most about my dad. I can kind of work most things out on my own. If I can't, I have a pretty good support system around me who can help. But when things are just so far out there that I have no frame of reference for what to do, that's when it time to call dad. He had a way of taking the most bizarre things life threw at me seem manageable. Or he would tell me I was already on the right path, and that I already knew that.

God, I'm going to miss him. Big goofball.


UPDATE: I should mention that the afore-mentioned "secret" had nothing to do with my dad, my stepmom, or anyone in my immediate family. Just a cousin acting independent (and foolishly timed) of the week's events.