So this guy, a divorced dad with a beautiful daughter and a Russian KGB hamster named Hammy, nominated me to take part in the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge and I have accepted. Okay, he’s actually my good blogger friend, Gary Mathews, and he’s full of witty sarcasm and lots of love for his precious girl. Check out his blog if you get the chance, he always has a great story to share about his day.

The Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge require you to post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo (It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or simply a short paragraph) and then nominate another blogger to carry on this challenge. Accepting the challenge is entirely up to the person nominated, it is not a command. I have no clue on the origin of this thing, but hopefully you’ll enjoy what I have to share.

Excitement (or was it lethargy) filled the air the first day we brought Avery home from the hospital. You know that new parent feeling of having to be so delicate with every move you make so as to not break your precious cargo/baby? Yeah, that was us.

I remember being stunned as I watched a nurse handle Avery at the hospital and thought any move faster than the trickle of tree sap was too much. With a year and half under our parental belts, I am more confident with tossing Avery around to do flips in midair, but will never forget that feeling we had with newborn Avery.

Seriously, so much innocence and beauty. Despite being tired because, hospital, and having nothing to eat I still went on a hot run fueled only by the excitement of being Dad. Okay, and I’m stubborn/stupid as my wife and mom would say. Sometimes it’s hard to disagree.

We were lost with what exactly to do that first day, but luckily my mom and grandma (visiting from Pennsylvania) were there to get in the way give us support.

Today I am nominating Gil Noriega from FanDads.com, who is partners with his friend, Victor to talk about video games, comics, toys, movies, and, oh yeah, being a parent. They have been featured on multiple sites and have plenty of content for all types of dads from geeky to sporty, or a little of both like me! Check them out, maybe you’ll see a new toy that they reviewed and you just have to get it. For the kids, of course.

So this guy, a divorced dad with a beautiful daughter and a Russian KGB hamster named Hammy, nominated me to take part in the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge and I have accepted. Okay, he’s actually my good blogger friend, Gary Mathews, and he’s full of witty sarcasm and lots of love for his precious girl. Check out his blog if you get the chance, he always has a great story to share about his day.

The Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge require you to post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo (It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or simply a short paragraph) and then nominate another blogger to carry on this challenge. Accepting the challenge is entirely up to the person nominated, it is not a command. I have no clue on the origin of this thing, but hopefully you’ll enjoy what I have to share.

Today’s picture is from the day Avery was born. Kelley and I both have read plenty about the benefits of skin-to-skin contact, and that even dads should need to take part. Immediately after birth, the nurses handed Avery over to Kelley for the instant mother-daughter skin-to-skin connection. It was beautiful (and kinda gross) to see and words cannot describe my emotions that day.

After bonding with Mommy and getting cleaned up, it was my turn for skin-to-skin bonding with our precious baby girl. I was proud to be DAD and my pride only grows more and more each day!

The feeling of holding your newborn child close to your bare skin is pure bliss. There is no doubt that the Oxytocin levels were through the roof in our tiny room at the hospital with our tiny daughter as healthy as can be.

I truly believe that Avery’s bond with Kelley and me is unwavering, and we have skin-to-skin to thank for playing a major role. It’s hard to think back to how small she was then compared to now, and how there is still sooooo much more growing to do. Looking back is a great reminder to not look too far forward.

For my second victim nominee, I am inviting Kevin aka Spike Zelenka who blogs over at Double Trouble Daddy to accept this challenge. As blog name implies, he is a full-time stay-at-home dad (I hear they’re pretty cool!) and father of twin boys. Spike and I share a common interest in quality craft beer, wine, and scotch, and he’s an all around great guy with a fun personality. If you check out his Who’s Spike about page, ask him why his picture is sideways. I honestly don’t know, so if you find out, please tell me. 🙂

So this guy, a divorced dad with a beautiful daughter and a Russian KGB hamster named Hammy, nominated me to take part in the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge and I have accepted. Okay, he’s actually my good blogger friend, Gary Mathews, and he’s full of witty sarcasm and lots of love for his precious girl. Check out his blog if you get the chance, he always has a great story to share about his day.

The Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge require you to post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo (It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or simply a short paragraph) and then nominate another blogger to carry on this challenge. Accepting the challenge is entirely up to the person nominated, it is not a command. I have no clue on the origin of this thing, but hopefully you’ll enjoy what I have to share.

For my first photo, I’m going back to April 28, 2013. I just finished running the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon but you couldn’t tell from the excited look on my face. I think the reason is pretty obvious, my wife, Kelley/Going Mom, was in the early stages of pregnancy with Avery!

I had been running the OKC marathon since 2005 and it will always be near and dear to me since it’s been part of our lives for so long. The picture, which you’ll soon see below (or you could just scroll down now), shows me pointing to Kelley’s belly and grinning with excitement. It’s always a good feeling to finish something like a marathon, but this was my first (and last) marathon to run as a DAD!

True, I just wrote about how I want to gain weight/strength, but I have a feeling I’ll run a few more marathons in my life. Not for time, but just to enjoy the fact that I’m healthy and able to do so.

Thinking about how I was basically a dad and we were about to become a family of three made it easy to block out the mental part of running 26.2 miles, but seeing my mom (G-Ma) and Kelley cheering me on meant so much more than I could ever explain in words.

My first nominee for this photo challenge is Carl Wilke and he’s a Big Cheese Dad. Well, he grew up in Wisconsin at least, but now lives in Washington State where he’s a fellow at-home dad. Unlike the one kid I am at home with, this guy has six from ages 1 to 19! Yikes! Despite the obvious handful to keep him busy, he turns out some great content worth checking out. He’s even ahead of the game since he knew I was going to nominate him and already started the challenge. The first one is a beautiful pic of his 5 and 2 year old girls sleeping. Thanks for participating, Carl!!