A tough first

Believe it or not, tonight will be the first night Harmon will spend away from me. He will spend the night with his Nana and Papa – and his aunts will visit – and then Nana will keep him for his usual Wednesday.

It didn’t HAVE to happen but we thought it might be a good idea. I didn’t want my first night away from him to come when I’m in the hospital birthing #2. Harmon surely would be thinking WTF when we came home! AND, it would do wonders to fuel that future sibling rivalry.

So, we’ll meet my parents and drop him off after work and then we’ll head down to Comerica Park for the Cardinals-Tigers game. It’s a good thing that I have the baseball game to distract me but I know I’ll check in a lot. I’m sure he will be just fine – he’s pretty laid back and just rolls with it. He probably would be more upset about not being able to go to the baseball game than spending the night away from us.

I just know I’m ALREADY looking forward to picking him up tomorrow night!

PS – I must note that Kevin has only been away from Harmon for ONE night – on an overnight trip to Baltimore about a year ago. Overall, we’re both very lucky that we’re around most of the time and don’t have jobs that require travel.

Harmon's medley

The secret is out

A few years ago, a friend of mine who works for the NBA (and strongly dislikes Danny Ainge because of this), made the following statement when I asked him what he thought about Danny and his efforts with the Boston Celtics:

“If Danny Ainge has a plan, it’s the best-kept secret in the NBA!”

Well, after last night’s Beantown beatdown of the Lakers which culminated with the Celtics’ 17th NBA Championship, I guess the secret is out.

Kevin and I have been Celtics’ fans since the Larry Bird era. I think that was the last time fundamental team basketball was played in the NBA. It was always so cool to watch those old teams that played defense, passed the ball, played unselfishly and put the success of the team ahead of their personal achievements. Since those days, though, there have been some rough years for the Celtics with last year being the roughest as they won only 24 games.

During the off-season, though, Danny made some moves that would make history. In June 2007, Danny traded Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak and the fifth overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft to Seattle for Ray (Jesus Shuttlesworth) Allen, Glen Davis and the 35th overall pick in the draft. Then, in July 2007, Danny worked a deal with former Celtics’ teammate and current Minnesota Timberwolves VP of Operations Kevin McHale to get Kevin Garnett. In exchange for Garnett, the Timberwolves received Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Sebastian Telfair, Gerald Green, Theo Ratliff, two 2009 first-round draft picks and some cash for good measure. This trade was the single largest trade for one player in NBA history.

It was at this point that many experts began to wonder if the Celtics would have enough players to field a team much less players talented enough to help the “Boston Three Party” (Allen, Garnett and long-time Celtic Paul Pierce) win a title. During the rest of the summer and then into the season, the Celtics signed some free agents and filled out their roster.

Now that the team was together, they were fun to watch and they went on to win 66 games in the regular season – the biggest turnaround of all time. Although the NBA is different (much worse, in my humble opinion) than it was back in the day, this team made us want to watch pro basketball again. Just like the old Celtics’ teams, they were unselfish, they passed the ball (sometimes too much), they played defense like no one else in the NBA, they had great role players (and you never knew who would step up and contribute each night) and – most importantly – the players changed their games and put all their personal accolades aside in hopes of achieving one team goal – a championship.

While they struggled in the first two rounds of the playoffs, going to a seventh game with both the Hawks and the Sixers, they took care of the Pistons and the Lakers in six games and won the title. And, along the way, Danny Ainge was named NBA Executive of the Year.

So, I guess he had a plan after all and now he’s got a ring too!

Happy (I am glad I am Harmon's Father)'s Day

One of my Father's Day presents from Harmon was this book, "Father to Son: Life Lessons on Raising a Boy." Taking a few moments to flip through the pages, I came across this passage on page 97: "Take him for doughnuts Saturday morning. Let his mom sleep late." While we don't do doughnuts just yet, although I will be happy when we do, Harmon and I do go for boys' breakfast every few weeks. I usually take him to McDonald's (or Old MacDonalds, as he calls it) for pancakes and sausage, or Denny's, for the same. But, today I wanted a family breakfast, so we had pancakes at home. It was there that I received some of my gifts, including the aforementioned book, Phil Steele's 2008 college football preview issue (which is suspect in that he has Notre Dame as preseason No. 19; but that is for later in the summer) and a new cologne. Earlier in the week, I received my biggest present when, after more than 10 years of the same glasses, I picked out a new pair of specs at Kellogg. After I cut the grass on Sunday, Harmon spent two hours in his backyard pool before we had dinner from Applebees. It was a great Father's Day, and just the way I wanted it with my family, including Baby #2 as we call him/her. I read Harmon his customary four books before he went to bed, which also is included in the "Father to Son" book, on page 16: "Read to him nightly. He'll love it." He does love it, and I love Harmon, Aimee, Isabel, and Baby #2. I am blessed to be a father.

31 months – 3 days late

I’ve been writing SO MUCH at work that the last thing on my mind has been writing for the blog so it’s no wonder I totally forgot to do Harmon’s 31-month update. God, I’m only 14 weeks pregnant and I’m ALREADY forgetting about the first born. I need to step it up!

Harmon is doing wonderfully! No, he’s not potty trained yet but we are oh so close. He no longer goes #2 in his diaper – thank the Lord – and he’s dry overnight most of the time. #1, however, is the challenging part. He’ll go on the toilet at all the usual times – in the morning, before bed and after meals – but he won’t tell us any other time. It’s very frustrating because WE ALL KNOW HE KNOWS but he just won’t do it. I hope it just clicks soon but I just don’t know.

Aside from the potty training, everything is great. He’s continuing to do well at school. We got him a cute t-shirt with his school’s logo on it so now says he’s going to Annie’s Children’s School to play with his friends. It’s very sweet!

He learns new things every single day. He’ll see numbers and letters and yell them out and still is really into all his books. I got him a Curtis Granderson t-shirt to wear to our summers Tigers’ games and he points out the number (28) and spells out the name. I really hope he continues to learn at a good pace.

Although we haven’t officially told him he’s got a little brother or sister on the way, we’re slowly dropping hints. We’ll ask him if he wants a baby to come live with us or if he wants a brother or sister. Since we have names picked out, we’ll ask him what we’ll name a boy (and he’ll tell us Simon) or a girl (and he’ll tell us Maizey) and he gets into it. We’ll tell him a) once I get noticeably bigger or b) when we have the ultrasound (July 15), whichever comes first. I hope we can make it to the ultrasound because we’re finding out this time and it would make it easier to tell him who exactly is on the way.

Once the baby does arrive, we’ll move Harmon from the nursery and into the den. We picked out his new bedding (Junior Varsity from Pottery Barn Kids – it’s very cool) and will change his toddler bed into a full bed. We’re thinking late September or early October might be a good time for this change. We’re hoping he’ll be potty trained by then and it will be after he changes classrooms at school so hopefully his big changes will be behind him. We also thought this was early enough so that he doesn’t feel kicked out right when the new baby arrives. So, that’s the plan. Unfortunately, with him moving into the den, we’ll have to move the computer downstairs which will take some getting used to. We’ll deal, though.

Other than that, it’s business as usual. We’re outside every day – taking walks and going to the park. We’re trying to take advantage of those summer months before the craziness of the fall arrives.

And baby makes four

When we brought Harmon home from the hospital on November 12, 2005, they didn't give us an instructional manual. But, 2-1/2 years later, I think we have it all figured out. We are raising a handsome, smart, playful little guy who will probably tower over both us us sooner than later. We have had so much fun raising him, we have decided to do it again. No, not raise Harmon again. He is well on his way to age 3 and, if we did get the chance, I am not sure we would do anything different.

No, the news is that Bergguist Baby #2 is on the way. We have been very blessed to have gotten pregnant so quickly with our son or daughter to be. We wanted to space our children three years apart, to give Harmon time to be the baby and enjoy being the spoiled one. And, believe me, he is. The due date for Harmon's new brother or sister is December 13, 2008. Because Harmon was a C-section, Aimee will have another one, so he/she may come a week earlier. Of note, our anniversary is December 2, so it will be a joyous month every year between Harmon's birthday in November and our anniversary and the new baby's birthday in December. And, just in time for the holidays. Whew!

Aimee is a trooper to carry the baby during the hot summer months again. If the new baby is anything like Harmon's size, it will be quite a summer. She has been such a good Mommy with Harmon; he loves her so much! Aimee no doubt will document her pregnancy more as we go, but we couldn't be more blessed. Harmon is even getting into the act, as we often ask him if he would like a brother or sister. When we first asked him, he said "a cat." But, now he says brother or sister. I think sister is in the lead now. BTW, for a point of prediction, Kevin thinks it is a girl.

P.S. Isabel takes great offense to the title of this entry. Maybe it should be high five.

Shoes

I love Harmon’s spring/summer shoes so much that I felt the need to document them FOREVER. I’m sure this is more for me than him but whatever, here goes:

These are his Keen sandals. He has them in navy, with yellow accents of course.


Here are his brown Kenneth Cole Reaction sandals. These pretty much go with everything and he LOVES them.


For the times he needs gym shoes, we went with the old stand-by in this house: Nike. They are blue and orange and really cute but sometimes difficult to put on his big feet.


On occasion, Harmon does need to dress up so he has these cute Merrell slip-ons. He’s worn these a few times already this spring and they are adorable, especially with his brown sweater vest and jeans.

And, to complete the shoe wardrobe for the season, yesterday we bought him these Crocs. We thought they would be great for our upcoming trip to Minnesota – easy on and easy off and it’s OK if they get wet.

Old vernacular

One of our favorite phrases since way back when Kevin and I first met is “boot in the eye.” I’m not sure where it originated – most likely from our crazy days at U-M Sports Information – but it still gets A LOT of play in our household.

We love to joke with Harmon and tell him he’s going to get a “boot in the eye” if he doesn’t do something we ask of him. Or, if he’s crying, fussing, whining, etc., we’ll ask him what’s wrong. After he’s done explaining, we’ll say “well, how about a boot in the eye?” His hilarious response is ALWAYS “no, no boot in the eye!”

There are lots of other choice words and phrases that we use from the old days. They’re probably not the nicest things for Harmon to say (like “talkin’ ‘bout fat chicks,” for example) but they are hilarious nonetheless. One of the many fun things about having a 2 ½-year-old!

I guess I'll just ...

Harmon has had a few choice phrases lately and one of our favorites is:

"I guess I’ll just …"

If we tell him to pick up his cars or eat his food, for example, he’ll sit there, wait a few minutes and then say the following:

“I guess I’ll just pick up my cars” or “I guess I’ll just eat my food.”

The funniest usage of this phrase is when he knows he’s in trouble. He’ll lower his head, lower his voice and mumble “I guess I’ll just go back to bed!”

We have no idea where all this “I guess I’ll just …” comes from but it’s hilarious. Who knows where kids pick up this stuff!