Tag: The Dad Speaks

On July 23rd, Nina had minor surgery on her back; don’t worry, she is doing good and each day is better than the previous. Dr. Dad and Nurse Niko are taking good care of her. We make sure she has drinks in the mini fridge upstairs and I have been providing lots of hot meals…

Niko stopped taking naps in November of 2019, right when I started my MBA at Western Governors University. Yeah great timing. Well, a few days ago, he woke up super early. It was so early that my work alarm for 7 am hadn’t even gone off yet. I was able to make his breakfast and…

When Niko wakes up in the middle of the night before we are scheduled to get him for a quick pee or in the morning, he instinctively yells DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD. He even did it a few weeks ago when I was not even home in the morning as I was physically at work. I can hear…

Man, I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since I started writing on www.thestatmanspeaks.com. My first article on July 17, 2011, was about high school football. See, I was a high school football statistician for games on the radio (1997 to 2015) and for games on the television (2009 to 2015). I really fell in…

Since June 14th, I have been walking in the evenings after Niko is sleeping. It’s a very short walk around the block, because it’s so hot. Before I do my walks, I have to make sure I have clothes to change into. Because, even though they are short walks, I do sweat. As far as…

I have been working from home since last April and have had to be in the office a few times since then, but only for a couple of hours in the morning. Then, I was able to finish my shift at home. Last week, that changed, as I was in the office Tuesday through Friday…

I guess being five years old, means some things must be perfect! If not, he gets frustrated and has recently started imitating our body and facial expressions from when we get frustrated. It’s actually really funny how accurate he is, especially when he uses them. Let me quickly explain… For breakfast, Niko wants ham and…

I am not going to blab on and on and on and on about today, because everyday is both Mothers and Fathers Day and children’s day! But, I am looking forward to later in the day having some Chinese food that Nina and Niko will pickup. Noodles, rice, and dumplings for me! Yummy for my…

Hi, my name is Mark and I have been eating pasta, rice and a little bit of dairy for the past few weeks and I really need to put a stop to it now. I was doing so well before that (my stomach wasn’t hurting either during that time) and then, it all went down…

It feels really good that today I didn’t have to mow the backyard this morning like I did last Sunday and the Sunday before that. We had a lot of rain and the back yard grew quickly in the two prior weeks; this week, it’s just HOT. Our little battery powered lawnmower did a good…

We purchased this game several weeks ago, but it wasn’t until a few days ago that we eventually figured out how to play it. I enjoy it much better than all the Mario video games we have; mainly, because I get to smash things into lego pieces and it’s also a really great stress reliever….

Obviously, I love to write as I have been doing it publicly since 2011. It just comes so easy for me and once I get going, I am hard to stop. But, when I am not writing about writing, I love to read books. The books I choose are mainly autobiographies or biographies of people….

Last Wednesday and Thursday, I had to actually go to my work for a few hours in the morning. The good thing though, is that once I finished, I was able to come home and continue to work from home for the rest of my shift. It was nice to have some alone and quiet…

For the past few weeks; and in addition to his noise machine, we now play music for Niko for a about an hour while is going to sleep. Niko calls the two playlists Tinkle Tinkle and Spaghetti! Spaghetti, because Nina’s mom would put that particular album on and cook meat sauce and by the time…

Niko; who just turned 5 years old two weeks ago, really enjoys playing Mario video games. I can’t play Mario video games with him because he is so much better and faster than me. I always die immediately when we do play together and most of the time, when I do die, he leaves my…

Two weeks ago, I finished reading the last book of 9 in the Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin. It was also adapted into a television series and I watched two seasons on Netflix and two seasons on YouTube. I finished watching the television series last Sunday. The last season; from 2019 on…

Why is it that only one day a year we celebrate Mothers Day? In my little world, everyday is Mothers Day! Niko and I absolutely adore Nina and cling to her throughout the days. The only alone time she gets is in the evenings after Niko goes to sleep and I am downstairs doing things…

This will be very short and sweet; oh my god, I really want something sweet right now. I am kidding. I am actually doing really good and am proud of myself. But, I will also tell you, it’s really hard since our house is full of stuff I don’t want to eat (like pasta, rice,…

I did really good not eating pasta and rice for almost 27 days; I started on 3/25 and was aiming for 30 days. But, my birthday was on 4/23 and I had Chinese noodles and fried rice that entire weekend; it actually started on 4/22! And, after that, I just continued to eat pasta and…

Niko 5th birthday was today and we are did an easy; just the three of us, celebration. So, I will make this very short and sweet. Basically, he got a homemade chocolate cake and lots of gifts; most of them were Mario related. But, his favorite is sleeping in bed with him and it’s Optimus…