So Josh, Audrey and I always joked that we should have named Luke “Anakin” before he was born.  That way, when he was being good we’d call him by his proper name of Anakin and if he was being bad, we’d call him Vader.  If you’ve read my previous post about SW and my kids, you can imagine pretty easily how we were all loving the idea.  I still say Anakin Aney has a sweet ring to it!  Alas, we couldn’t get Mom to buy off on it…’completely’.  She agreed to go with Luke instead.  See, the Dark Side never wins!

So why am I bringing up the name change again?  In the beginning, Luke was definitely teetering on the edge of the Dark Side especially when Dad was dealing with him.  However, after a couple months, Luke has definitely turned out to be our happiest ‘baby’ yet.  He constantly smiles at anyone who looks at him, and being a ‘thumb sucker’ he can comfort himself in most cases without any intervention.  Of course there are exceptions.

Besides being a very happy baby, he also goes to bed earlier than any of our others.  He usually hits the sack at about 6pm.  However, it never fails.  The few times Ann is able to get out into the ‘adult world’ with a few of her friends after putting Luke to bed, he decides that is the night he is going to wake up at 8:30pm looking for a little nighttime snack.  Given that I want to give Ann a bit of well deserved time off, I usually ‘battle’ with Luke for an hour or two before caving in and calling Ann for backup.  Since, Audrey is quick to point out that I do not have any milk in my nipples, I have limited options in terms of comforting Luke. 

There is one fail safe way to comfort him every time though.  I simply start humming.  It’s the one go to option that Josh, Audrey and I have all mastered.  So if you are ever at our house and hear Luke starting to get frantic, you can bet your bottom dollar that you’ll hear three octaves of The Imperial March being hummed…four if Mom isn’t in the position to comfort at the moment. 

Luke’s affinity to the tune, as well as Vader images, has prompted Dad and Josh to make the change to “Anakin”…we’ll see if it sticks ;)

I wish I could say Ann did it, but unfortunately I’ve created two Star Wars Beasts and I’ve no idea how to slow down their growth!  Josh and Audrey are so obsessed with Star Wars that it is the only thing they think about 24x7.  Okay, maybe Audrey is 20x7, but Josh is definitely 24x7.  You can see evidence of this in this video.

If Josh is the one initiating a conversation (i.e. he’s not answering a direct question from us) it always starts like this, “I was wondering…”  At this point, I tune out and wait to answer “The Force.”.  Every day I get about 10 of these statements…remember I work out of the home, so I only see the kids about 3-4 hours a day, so ten different Star Wars conversations in that time span are tiring.  Here are a few examples, bear in mind these are just random thoughts from Josh at random times.

Upon being woken up, while going to the bathroom, “I’ve been wondering, you know when Luke throws the bomb into the AT-AT and then falls all the way down?  How come he didn’t get hurt?”  Me: “The Force.”

After getting in car after hockey practice, “I’ve been wondering, how come Yoda is so small and he’s like fifty hundred years old?” Me: “The Force.”

After being asked about his play date from Dad and what he learned at preschool…as soon as it was his turn to initiate, “I’ve been wondering, since Darth Vader is Luke’s Dad, why does he burn him up at the end of Star Wars 6?” Me: “The Force.”

Finally, playing up Josh’s new ‘rebel’ attitude regarding speeding in the car (especially when we are late for hockey practice), “Dad, put the pedal to the metal and I’ll watch out for cops!” (ponders for a moment) “I’ve been wondering…if we could go hyper-speed, how fast would we be going?” Me: “The Force.” Josh: “Huh?”

As you can see, the constant Star Wars bombardment from Josh and Audrey has taken its toll on me.  They’ve employed the ‘Jedi Mind Trick’ with such efficiency that they’ve even changed Mom’s opinion of Star Wars and she’s now a fan.  It’s either the Jedi Mind Trick or the brainwashing resulting from the constant humming of this all day.  The end result…Ann now likes Star Wars and now she even hums this throughout the day to Lucas…see I told you Anakin Aney had a special ring to it!

Lucas is growing so fast right in front of our eyes.  Sometimes it seems like he’s been with us forever, and yet other times it is like yesterday he wasn’t here.  He hit another milestone a few days ago…he cut his first tooth.  As I was writing that down in my little ‘Milestone Spreadsheet’ and comparing it to Josh and Audrey, Lucas blew them away in how fast he got his first tooth.  What does that mean?  The heck if I know!  But what I did realize is that we had footage of Josh reaching his milestone of riding a bike and I had never put it up or blogged about it.

So while Lucas gets the ‘photo’ for this blog, Josh gets to show off his bike riding skills.  It amazed both Ann and I at how fast he learned and all the while, never wiping out.  You’ll have to watch the video for a tip on how to avoid nasty wipeouts on the first attempts at riding a bike ;)

Considering that we are half way through March and a few days ago we got another 5” of snow (albeit most of it is melted now) I think I still can!  While you are reading, if any of you can think of a reason why I still live in Minnesota, please comment…Florida or Arizona sound so much better each year! 

I never got any Christmas videos or stories up, so I thought I better get at least one humorous story down in writing for Josh and Audrey to enjoy when they grow up…along with a little video evidence.  Don’t worry, I will not bore you with too much Christmas morning footage, but I have to present one video as Exhibit A in the case of “Dad versus Kids”.  Dad is charging Josh and Audrey with the crime of “Christmas Morning Liars” and I think my evidence will speak for itself.... [More]

Well, Saturday was surprisingly bitter sweet for me.  I finished my duties as ‘Head Coach’ of 40+ 4 year old hockey players…AKA Rookies.  Anyone not familiar with the first couple years of youth hockey in Minnesota, you spend all year practicing, culminating to a single Jamboree at the end of the year.  In our case, it was a single game by dividing up my players into two teams.

Our schedule had essentially been a 45 minute session every Saturday.  Oddly enough, I got pretty anxious about mid-week every week figuring out what I was going to do for practice.  Sounds pretty silly saying it now, given that it was only a 45 minute session, but hey, anyone who saw me in High School Speech Class knows I get worked up when I’m in front of a crowd - not to mention Minnesota hockey parents can be a tough crew ;). 

Luckily, I had several ‘assistants’ who helped every week.  I definitely couldn’t have done it without out them, however, I wanted to make sure I did all the planning for them so they didn’t have the burden of coming up with a game plan to entertain kids for 20-30 minutes.  Ask any of them…given the level of some of the ‘skaters’ on the ice, 30 minutes could seem like an eternity.  In the beginning, our 30 minutes was essentially Simon Says while laying on the ice trying to get the kids ‘up and down’ since a good chunk of them couldn't stand or skate.  It got a bit monotonous, but I think it paid off.

So why do I say bitter sweet?  Well, given the anxiousness I put on myself, along with some of the long practice sessions rolling around on the ice, by the end of the year it was pretty cool to see the improvement and enjoyment the kids were having out on the ice. 

That along with how ‘I grew’ on some of the kids was pretty special too – I had several kids who couldn’t get enough high fives and attention from me, but it definitely warmed my heart!  Even during the Jamboree, I had a couple kids score goals and immediately B-line towards me to get their High Five – ignoring the play/puck behind them :)  Additionally, watching Josh from afar all season being such a good student, positive energy, and showing attention and respect to other coaches were indeed some of my proudest moments.

So where do I go from here?  Well, I’m not sure.  Josh is begging to play more tennis (back in my comfort zone), so we may take a break from hockey but we’ll see.  I don’t want to lose all the momentum we’ve gained – Audrey’s even out on the ice scooting around already.  In terms of myself continuing coaching…well, first let's see if I get invited back ;)  Tom’s convinced I’ll coach all the way through…I guess only time will tell!

As I mentioned, the culmination of our season was the Jamboree.  I put together a video (almost all tongue and cheek…don’t take any comments seriously) showing Josh’s meteoric rise to domination (I’ll start the BS now).  Josh guaranteed ‘lots of goals’ during his Jamboree and he didn’t disappoint.

Warning: The video is about 25 minutes – it’s not for the faint hearted ;)  Given the length and the duration, I’m hoping it streams OK.  Let me know if you have problems.