Tag: The Dad Speaks

I’m not going to highlight my highlights; whether it be in words or pictures, for 2017. Why? Because everybody else is doing that.  And, I don’t want to be like everybody else.  That’s what separates me from them. All I will say is that the last weekend of November till now has been busy and…

Actually, I should rename this to I NEED TO CLONE MY WIFE – PART 1! So, let’ see how many Nina clones I need: Sleeping Nina Showering Nina Breastfeeding Nina Cooking Nina Working Nina Relaxing Nina Playing Nina Driving Nina Napping Nina Marking Nina Ten clones for one Mark, Niko, and Franklin. I better stop…

A few weeks ago at work, one of my co-workers asked me why I am unable to watch TV or binge watch Netflix shows?  The simple and easy answer is, my attention span for that is about 15 minutes and it’s usually while I am eating dinner with my laptop on my lap; and I…

So, how was my vacation?  Well, under normal circumstances; meaning without a baby, our cruise was awesome and I ate a lot of stuff!  But, that didn’t happen this vacation.  We did look at cruises, but we don’t have any extra money sitting around. Ok, it was very nice to be home with my wife…

I am 40 years and my boss is 18 months old.  Yes, I take orders from Niko and most of the time, I have to oblige otherwise, I get a screaming angry baby. If he wants me to do something, 99.9% of the time, I will do it; even it makes me look weird! And, unlike…

In addition to being a daddy blogger, I am also a professional writer and photographer for high school football games; www.thestatmanspeaks.com. One of the teams I covered all last year and one game this season is the St. Anthony Yellow Jackets, a private Catholic school. Here is an excerpt from that article: When I first…

This month, I am taking a lot of time off from work and I am very much looking forward to it. I am off today, 11/17, 11/23-11/24, and 11/27-12/1.  No cruise is planned yet!  We did look but we don’t have any extra money and that is OK with me.  We will be doing lots…

I am 40 years old, have been married to a beautiful woman for 7 years, and we have an 18-month old son.  And, an old adopted old cat! Basically, what I am trying to say is I am a responsible; most of the time, adult. So, because of that and the fact that I have…

My wife is a stay-at-home and a work-from-home mom; how she balances these in addition to taking care of me and Franklin, I have no clue.  All I do know is she is doing an awesome job and I really appreciate everything she does.  She deserves more than an ode; she deserves a hug and…

Just a really quick announcement and it doesn’t involve any human beings; if you know what I mean.  I am actually rebranding my writing and photography Facebook pages  to one new page at facebook.com/themarkspeaks.  So, please go and like it.  You will find my sports articles and photos and my daddy blogs; basically it will…

On Tuesday Nina and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.  I was planning on picking up dinner for us, but that didn’t happen.  After a lot of back and forth text messages regarding food, Nina told me she had some steaks in the freezer; as soon as I saw that, I was like yes, steaks…

Niko is 17 months old and knows a lot of words; what they mean and what they look like.  Where did he get his smarts from?  He imitates sounds we make and I just love that! I really need to start watching what comes out of my mouth!  He also helps clean up his toy…

I know Niko dreams, but what does he dream about?  Are we in his dreams? Is Franklin cat in his dreams? Are boobs in his dreams? Does he know he is dreaming?   Does he have nightmares? Every night and when I put him down for naps, I always tell him I will see him in…

Since June 2nd, Niko has been sleeping wonderfully in his bedroom for nighttime and since June 5th, I have been sleeping wonderfully in my bedroom.  If you do the math, I slept with him; not in the crib, but on the air mattress, for his first few days just to make sure he was OK…

Niko slept till 5am this morning in his room alone in the crib. I guess it was me who was waking him up around 2am or 3am or maybe the cat whom we kept downstairs all night long. The cat meows really loud. I can hear him in both bedrooms clearly. I just need to…

On Friday, Niko turned 13 months old.  OK, so when can I stop referring to his age in months? Niko has several words in his vocabulary and his favorites this week are: out and up. Out…because he loves to go out and explore the world.  He doesn’t understand that sometimes we can’t go out because…

On Memorial Day weekend and since I had 3 days off, it was the best opportunity to nap train Niko in his bedroom.  Right now, he naps and sleeps overnight in the crib in our bedroom.  When he masters this new challenge (which should be a few weeks), we will do night training in his…

I should’ve named this one ODE TO THE WIFE PART 3, but I have always liked the song, “SUNDAY WILL NEVER BE THE SAME,” by Spanky and our Gang (Google it after you read all of my words).  Plus, that song is more authentic to what I wrote. Now that I am thinking about it,…

On Saturday, I took Niko for a very early morning walk.  I left Nina at home and I am glad as she got some much needed sleeping in time and alone time. It was my 1st time taking him out without any other adult supervision.  The night before, Nina and I packed his breakfast, put the…

On Saturday, we took Niko to the San Antonio zoo to see my parents.  I am not at all implying that my mom and dad are animals (well, maybe a little bit)! Even though I have lived in San Antonio for my entire life, I haven’t been to the zoo in quite a long time. …