David Vienna's Blog, page 218

This airport bar is upping the game.

This airport bar is upping the game.

We went for an evening swim. Me and Wyatt like to just jump in,...

We went for an evening swim. Me and Wyatt like to just jump in, while Boone gets in slowly. This time, however, he tried our method.

how2beadad:In case you need a sign for your life.Signal...

how2beadad:

In case you need a sign for your life.

Signal boost.

Hillary Clinton’s email trouble won’t go away, two...

Hillary Clinton’s email trouble won’t go away, two women complete Army Ranger training, and a company preps for a giant robot war. All that, plus armed pigeons and laser eyes in a new Discussing News With My Kids.

midwestern-momma:themamalogues:mypositivityandcomplaints:to...

midwestern-momma:

themamalogues:

mypositivityandcomplaints:

tomhazeldines:

Me as a parent.

Yup hahah.

Alleluia

TRUTH.

Okay. I’ve alluded to this before, but here’s the full news. And...

Okay. I’ve alluded to this before, but here’s the full news. And it is related to parenting.

Season 2 of Laughs premieres this Saturday on Fox (in select cities). The show ends with a segment called So Then There’s This, which I produce.

You see, I’ve been doing social media and other stuff for a few shows, one of which was Laughs. That show spun off the web series So Then There’s This. A network exec saw my Discussing News stuff and asked if I wanted to take over the series as producer. Then shortly after I took over, they announced that the series would appear within episodes of Laughs for the new season.

To recap, here’s the chain of events, all in a row:

I became a dad
I started a dad blog and associated social media accounts
That experience helped me get a social media job at a charity
That experience helped me get a social media job in television
The series I do with my kids, plus my work for the TV show led to a job producing a web series
That web series will now be on TV

So basically, I’m a producer now and I have my kids to thank. What a strange ride.

(Oh, and since this is a parenting site, I’ll go ahead and apologize now to all the moms who’ll be offended by what Tom says in the premiere episode of So Then There’s This.)

tacosaysroar tagged me in the Stop, Drop, and Selfie thing.It’s...

tacosaysroar tagged me in the Stop, Drop, and Selfie thing.

It’s late. I’m tired. Wine happened. This is what you get.

I tag… markruffalo, sesamestreet, fosterhood, and taylorswift.

BOOM!

Every Day

randomkeith:

Truthful Tuesday a little early.

I try and be a good father and a good dad to Gavin every day. I’m mindful of it as soon as I’m awake.

The father figure I am striving for is one of teaching. I want to have routines, teach him his manners, teach him the right way to say things (like don’t call it a truckie- it’s a truck), and to teach him respect. No hitting mommy, tantrums will not get you what you want, and we don’t step on the cat.

The dad figure is hard for me. I didn’t have one for a lot of years - I had my Grandad (28 years in the Army and well past his prime when he took me in) so I got the father figure a lot.

I try and make sure to do silly dances, play with blocks, read any book he wants read, be interested in the things he’s interested in (goddamn Wiggles man….) and always there to hold his hand (for safety or comfort) and always with the hugs.

Being a dad is not natural to me but it gets easier and more second nature day by day. I find myself having things that only we do together - our special little things (like popping shampoo bubbles) he won’t ever remember.

I look at a lot of dads on Tumblr and am inspired and in awe of how easy and natural they make it look.

lazydad, thedaddycomplex, how2beadad, ceconix, thegreencamel to name just a few.

I was terrified when he was born that I’d be no good and he’d hate me by his first birthday. The terror isn’t gone but tempered and I know there will be days he thinks he hates me but right now a silly song or a hug soothe the tiny guy when he thinks he’s a savage beast.

I am thankful to be a part of his world.

I am grateful to be a part of his world.

I am a lucky guy.

It’s amazing that it’s been a little more than 20 months since I first held him and hummed “Simple Man” to him while he slept.

I think if anyone else in this world would have puked on my beard we might not be friends anymore.

Let’s not talk about the number of times I’ve been peed on or had my gentleman sausage kicked or head butted.

Let’s also ignore the sleepless nights and crying sessions so long I just wanted to wail with him.

Except for the pain of being kicked in the nads (goddamned grocery carts and swinging toddler feet) it’s all pale in comparison to the crawling, walking, sign language, and the little tiny man that has enough energy to rival the sun.

I wake daily with resolve to be a complete parent - to temper my frustrations with love and kindness even when I’m ready to explode and never be too far away from having a bowl of cereal together and going to look at airplanes.

I feel he has made me a better human with better stories (hello beard puke), and a better outlook on life.

I hope my lessons and guidance are enough right now to repay some of that karma.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention thelifeofromy - she is everything and more I knew she would be as a mother.

My truth is that I am a fortunate soul to be surrounded by such amazing people both in this little red house and around the world (that’s you guys and gals). Thank you all for the guidance and support you truly are like family and I wish I could have you all over for a cook out (that’s a bar-b-que for the non southerners) and party (but not too hard, I’m old)

All right, randomkeith. I left this as a comment on your post, but I’m reblogging to say more. First, my comment:

You’re kicking ass as a dad, man. Seriously. And I struggle every day to be a good dad. Some days I succeed, some days I fail. Don’t hold yourself to someone else’s standard. Do your best, love hard, and you’ll do great.

Now, let me elaborate.

electradaddy did a whole post about Capital T vs. Lower Case t parenting blogging. He nailed it—the difference between those who give the unladen truth and those who coat things with sugar. And while I try to be a Capital T parenting blogger, sometimes I’m a Lower Case t blogger. So, I urge you to look at what I post and what others you cite post and dig through the humor to see what we’re really saying.

We’re saying parenting is fucking hard as shit. And we don’t know what the fuck we’re doing. But, we’re trying. And we love our kids. And that’s the best anyone can ask. Because there’s no single playbook, there’s no single answer. There’s just hope and frustration and love and sleep deprivation.

I don’t know a lot for sure, but I know this one thing to be true: If you keep trying and keep loving, you’re a great dad.

All Day Sucker used Dubsmash to crowdsource a cameo-filled music...

All Day Sucker used Dubsmash to crowdsource a cameo-filled music video and it’s rad.

Also, I can now say I was in a music video with Andy Dick, which is funny because a stripper in Vegas once thought I was him and I ran with it.

Sometimes I Get Duped, But the Alternative is Unbearable

electradaddy:

There are all sorts of ways to blog. Some bloggers readily expose a gaping emotional wound to their readers. Based on a discussion with another Tumblr blogger several years ago, I call this Truth-with-a-capital-T* blogging and if it brings them comfort, I’m all for it. 

Some bloggers, like me, will take a painful event and look for the kernel of humor in the story and blog that. I call this truth-with-a-lowercase-t blogging. It allows you to take a painful situation and try to lessen the pain by blogging about it in a way that draws your attention away from the sadness of it all. For example, I don’t dwell on all the frustrating aspects of IVF and the various failures we experienced. Instead, I choose to blog about the nurse telling me when I had to give a semen sample, “Straight porn’s in the top drawer. Gay stuff’s in the bottom drawer,” and how I instantly thought, “Ain’t that just typical. Straight dude’s always gotta be on top.”

But, notice, in both cases, the blogger is discussing a real event. They’re not pretending to experience an event simply to gain internet fame. 

So, yes, I’m going with there are dudes bizarre-o enough to scoop their wife’s pee out of the toilet (maybe this is some hetero ritual to which I’m not privy - I dunno know - heterosexuality was never my speciality) because to believe I live in a world where there are people so desperate for internet fame that they would lie about the loss of a pregnancy is unbearable to me. Frankly, I’d rather be duped and I’m ok with being duped in this instance because I need to so I’m not further repulsed by humanity than I often already am. You roll how you roll and I’ll roll how I roll. 

*I wasn’t sure if this blogger wanted to be credited so I’ll wait for the person to let me know. 

I dabble in both capital T and lowercase t blogging.