What a party!

The rains could not spoil Natasha's first birthday party. Sure, we had planned an outdoor barbeque, and I had spent a couple hours setting up the tent and decorations in the backyard - but everything still came off beautifully!

We were joined by 30 or so family and friends, who helped our little angel celebrate her first 365 days. The gifts people brought were very generous. Toys, cute clothes, books, and cash --- Tasha loves the cash!

Unfortunately, our camera died last week, so we didn't get many pictures. We did get some - and I know other people took a few. If you DO have any pics from yesterday, PLEASE email them to me - canadastallestcoach@gmail.com.

Tasha loved this fabulous cake that Sarah made, and entertained the crowd by digging right into it - hands and face first.

Thank you everyone for being so thoughtful, and being such an important part of Tasha's life. It takes a village to raise a child, and you're all contributing. Me? I'm just the village idiot. (Take that Diane! I said it before you could)

Happy Birthday Natasha!

One year ago at the time of this writing, I was standing next to Sarah, while she was in labour. Apprehension was at an all time high - as was my levels of excitement and andrenaline. It was a 24 hour span I'll always remember like it was yesterday.

Reading the story I wrote on this blog the day she was born, and it really feels strange to think that was an entire year ago. It doesn't seem like a full year ago that I walked down that hospital corridor following Sarah's surgery, proudly presenting the new grandparents with 7 pounds, 10 ounces of pure bliss.

Today, she's closer to 25 pounds. She's over two and a half feet tall and she is just brimming with energy, curiosity, and love. She crawls faster than a speeding bullet. She climbs up and down the stairs of our house (always supervised!) with ease. She's learning sign language. She loves to sing along with her mom or dad and do little hand actions that go with the song. Her favourite book is Pat The Bunny. She is an amazing little girl.

Natasha, before you were born, I thought I was prepared for what fatherhood would be like. I was wrong. It is so much more. A friend of mine, and our family dentist, Gerry Filgiano said to me a few months before you were born, "You have no idea how hard you are going to fall in love with that baby". Truer words have never been spoken by a dentist.

Your mother and I adore you. You are everything to us.

Later today, some of our friends and family will be joining us for your first birthday party. I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun, and you'll be flashing that $100,000,000 smile and giggling all day long.

I love you Natasha Alexis Venusina Abreu. God bless you.

Happy Birthday baby girl.

Hey, where'd my summer go?

I haven't blogged for a while and when I looked at today's date I realized, WHOAH - I've gotta go back to work soon!

I'm actually looking forward to this school year, but I'm not looking forward to leaving Tasha for entire days again. This summer has definately spoiled me. I'm sure it's much harder for Sarah who's been home a whole year now. Can you believe it? Tasha's ALMOST A YEAR!

The other thing that sucks is my best buddy at work, Amy won't be back. She and her boyfriend have moved to Calgary. She was a great teacher, an awesome asset to the school and really good friend. We went out a few weeks ago for a little going-away party. That night I got MORE crappy news. My friend Sam who also works with us is moving to Calgary as well! What the hell? Did Calgary suddenly become cool? Did I miss a memo? The picture you see was taken at Amy's going away party. It's Amy, myself and Sammy.

This weekend the Johnsons are up visiting us. Lina, Mike, Sean and Justin have been staying at my parents house. Weird to think that Justin is going to be a high school senior and Sean is going into the 8th grade. We went downtown yesterday and did all the touristy stuff. Today we're going to Christie Pitts to see the Intercounty Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team. I'm pretty sure a strong majority of Toronto doesn't even realize we HAVE an intercounty baseball team.

Yesterday was Dad's birthday. For those of you have emailed asking, he's doing much better after his accident and is back to same sold self. Corny jokes, loud and the center of attention! We wouldn't want it any other way. We all chipped in and got him a really sweet BBQ for his bday.

My father-in-law actually gave us his barbeque last weekend so I've been grilling like a fiend at home.

Last weekend was also Caribana. I went down with Dan-e-o and Jamie and met up with Lancescape, Grimace Love and Charisma. They put together a new Monolith CD and we were sellin them on the streets. Good fun!

Oh ya, one more thing.
I downloaded one of my fav games EVER on my 360. STREET FIGHTER 2 BABY!! YAAAA!
:)

A new week, a new post

Man it's hard to stay on top of this blogging thing with so much else going on in the summer months.

I've been having a lot of fun though building my audience for my other blog, Tha O Show. We are now averaging between 3000 and 4000 hits per day. Yay us.

I picked up Blogging for Dummies and Podcasting for Dummies at Chapters last week. I've been readin both books and learning a lot. Ya, I thought I knew all there was to know about blogging, but clearly - i did not. RSS Feeds were just initials that nerds would say. I had no idea I could use them to increase my traffic and make some money.

Tomorrow is July 25th. Tasha will be ELEVEN MONTHS OLD! I can't even believe it. Where has the time gone??

Speaking of time flying... Sarah went to Lisa's wedding shower yesterday with Tasha, mom and Diane. Lisa is my cousin Geoff's bride to be. I can't belive Geoff (who I still have vivid memories of as a newborn) is actually getting married. Unreal.

We saw Kristine and Falynn today. Falynn is four months older than Tasha and really active! Running around everyway, laughing, and being really cute. Kristine has done a great job teaching her baby sign language - something Sarah and I have started and are more involved in now.

Tasha does signs for "up" (when she wants to be picked up) and "bye bye" and "finished" (when she's done eating) and a few others. At this age her mind is like a sponge and she should be signing whole conversations in no time.

New photos

I uploaded an entire album on Shutterfly. Everything in the July 2006 album is brand new! Go check it out.

Yesterday, Sarah's Aunt Patty and Granny came to visit. We got some cute pics of them with Tasha, and of the little munchkin playing in her baby pool out back. It's so hot out, I wish I fit in that darn thing!

Tasha was all decked out in her brand new pink sunsuit. More specifically, it's a Supergirl wetsuit. It's tres cool.

Anyway, go check all the new pics on Shutterfly.

A big update!

Wow I'm getting really bad at updating my blog.

I keep getting family hate-mail telling me to keep this thing up to date, so I will try to be better about it. I'll give you all a quick recap as to what is / has been going on.

First and foremost, you pretty much all heard about Dad's accident. I'm happy to tell you that he's doing much, much better. He actually went back to work this week (light duty only) and is a lot more mobile. I really think that the same accident would have killed me, or most people. I think the only way this man is ever going to break is if someone finds a huge supply of kryptonite.

I'm home for the summer. The camp I usually work for in the summer has been hit hard by low attendance. I was originally going to look into picking up another summer gig, but Sarah and I talked about it and I think this is a sign that I'm just meant to stay home and spend more time with Natasha.

Speaking of which, I can't tell you how quickly she's growing up. She's saying Mamma, Dadda and Babba all the time. She waves hello and bye bye at the appropriate times and she loves to clap (especially if you sing, "If You're Happy and You Know It..."). She truly is amazing.

Last week the Weitings moved to Kingston from Salem Mass. This move has been planned for at least a year and has finally happened. Everyone is very excited about our families living much closer to each other. Last week Khira came to stay with us for a week while her parents got things set up at the house. Khira did a great job looking after Tasha, entertaining her and being a good big cousin.

Last weekend was Mikael's birthday party at my parents house. It was actually a pretty big event with golf during the day and an all day BBQ. Good times, good times.

Weddings, weddings, weddings. Two weeks ago we went to Sheryl's wedding (one of Sarah's high school friends) at Casa Loma. This weekend is Wendy's wedding. Wendy is a long time mutual friend of Sarah's and Diane's. Coming up soon, my little baby cousin Geoff will be tying the knot. Unreal. I actually still remember the day he was born quite vividly.

In sports news:

I was really proud of the Portuguese soccer team - though I wish they could have overcome Headbuttin' Zidane's penalty kick to get a crack at those Italians in the final. They were emotionally drained in the 3rd place game against the home town Germans. They had a great run.

Five Toronto Blue Jays in the all star game! Wells with one of the precious FEW hits that were allowed, Glaus with a key double that lead to the win in the ninth, and BJ Ryan picking up the save. Hopefully Alex Rios will be back soon from that Staph infection. No truth to the rumor that Dan-e-o started that it was actually Erik Hinske that injected Rios with something!

Bryan Colangelo is determined to make his mark on the Raptors. Good or bad, this guy is makin' moves! At this point, there are only 4 guys on the roster that were on it in at the end of May! That's a quick turn around! He also made it very clear he still has money to spend and isn't done. The Raps seem to be sitting with an over abundance of swingmen ... so a trade could be a brewing...

Tha O Show has exploded. The little wrestling blog Dan-e-o and I started in February has now reached 4,000 members a day and is growing. MySpace has turned out to be an unbelievable promotional tool.

My computer DIED on me this week. Actually just the harddrive. Future Shop wanted 250 bucks to take it in, format it and then another 60 for a new drive. They also said it would take at least a week. I took it to The Computer Mechanics instead. They've had a show on Rogers for years which I've enjoyed and have a store in Oshawa. The people there are awesome. They charged me 100 bucks to clean the whole thing, give it a great tune up and have it running faster than it was when I first got it!

That's it for now... time to do some chores 'round the house. I'll be writing MUCH more frequently, so keep checking! New Tasha pictures should be uploaded by tonight or tomorrow morning!

Sing it Alice...

"Schooooooooooool's out for SUMMMER! Schoooooooooooool's out for EVA!"

Ok, maybe not forever, but the immortal words of Alice Cooper have certainly been running through my mind since 3:31 on Friday afternoon. I don't know why exactly, but it seems as though this school year was just a little bit longer than most.

I think in part it's because I've been anticipating my vacation the way a kid anticipates a shiny red bike under the tree on Christmas morning.

I've been dying to have a little down time to rest and recharge and spend with my unbelievable daughter.

Keep in mind - Tasha was born on the 25th of August. Sarah was in the hospital for almost a week, and we only had a couple days at home together before I had to go back to work. Since then it's been a bit of a grind. Christmas was nice, but I worked through the March Break and even now will be going to work basketball camp in another week.

These moments are so precious. I can't believe how tall she is already. I can't believe that she laughs at the appropriate time. She takes her pacifier out of her mouth, shoves it in mine and starts laughing uncontrollably.

She crawls - not the slithery type snakey crawling she's been doing - but 'big girl crawling! Up on her knees moving really fast! Thank goodness we put baby gates up because you can't take your eyes off her for a second!

Just over 10 months old already. Where has the time gone? I plan on savouring the last two months of her first year.

My first father's day...

Well my first father's day has come and gone.

I realize that Natasha has changed my life, and more specifically changed me more than I ever could have dreamed before she was born.

Sure, some people think I'm over protective and neurotic - but that's MY LITTLE GIRL there. She depends on Sarah and I to take care of her. I'd rather fail on the side of caution right now.

Not that I'm totally uptight, but I have been hearing some of the things coming out of my mouth and wondering who said them.

I would literally do anything for you Natasha. I love you so much. You've made this the best father's day ever.

The sickness from hell

Some of you heard this story first hand.... I wasn't going to blog it, but since my buddy Darkside gave his own account on his site, I figured i'd entertain you with my misfortune.

Go to Chronicology to read the story of how I got everybody sicker than a dog at the start of the month.

Video: How big is Natasha?

Sarah has been playing this game with Tasha for months and now she is responding. "How big is Natasha?" (The correct answer is hands in the air accompanied by "Soooooo Big!"). Well, Tasha now responds on her own - and she seems to think it's hilarious!

Video: Tasha playing catch with Mommy

Introducing Coca-Cola's newest spokesmodel

So Tasha has this new thing... anything Mommy or Daddy are drinking is the coolest thing in the world, and she MUST have it. Glass of milk, Gatorade, water ... whatever. On this occassion, it was my 2L bottle of Coke Zero. I put the bottle down and watched Tash crawl across the room, laughin her butt off and giggling when she finally got her hands on it. Don't worry grandmoms, I capped that top so hard, you'd need the Jaws Of Life to get it off.

There are also a ton of new pics on the Shutterfly gallery. Check the May 2006 folder for updates and the new June 2006 section.

Happy Birthday Di

So today is my little sister's birthday. 28 years old. Close to 30..... very close. 30 Diane. Thirty! Sure, I already hit 30, but men age more gracefully than women. I'm sure you'll be fine though. Better enjoy the next two years just in case though.

Ok, so even though you can annoy the hell out of me - and even though we can piss each other off better than anyone else, I have still appreciate having you around for 28 years. Thanks for being a great aunt and a supporting member of my new family.

Just quit acting like you know it all - booger face.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Happy birthday to the love of my life. It's my wonderful wife's birthday today! Everyone who reads this should call the house and say HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!

I love you so much. We've had quite a ride together over the last eight years. We've both grown, learned, and matured (well I did anyway - you were already mature. Hmm, maybe I haven't matured all that much! A little anyway...).

I'm thrilled to have you as my partner and the mother of my beautiful baby girl. Thank you for giving meaning and purpose to everythind I do.

Love Donnie

What's that in your mouth Tasha?

It's a tooth!

My baby girl has a tooth! No i don't have any pics of the pearly white nub yet, because she barely lets us see it at all. It's on the bottom, near the front. Sarah seems to think there may actually be two, but I haven't seen two - so consider this an uncomfirmed report.

New pics posted!

Ok Baba Lex... get off my back! New pics have been posted on shutterfly. Just click on the May 2006 album. There are some great shots of Tasha in Salem, hanging out with cousin Andre. Also pics of her with her best bud Kaylen, and a couple snaps I grabbed tonight of her playing with a toy that Charlie and Alex gave her for her baptism.
She's been crawling, rolling and working to stand a lot lately. This toy is great! It gives her something to hold onto, and lets her pull herself up, then plays music and flashes lights when she succeeds. She loves it.

Another Tasha video! In the car...

Just a cute little video of Tasha in the backseat of the car playing with her teether. Sarah picked up the camera because at one point, Tasha was just staring out the window and casually twirling the spinner on her toy with one finger. It looked pretty grown up. Of course, once the cam comes out all natural behaviour stops and she hams it up. Just like her daddy.

Happy Birthday Mom

Just a quick note to say Happy Birthday to that fine human being that brought me into the world. My mommy.

I love you mom.

Happy 94th!

Mmmmm Cheerios!

Apparently, while she was in Salem, Natasha developed a taste for whole grain Cheerios! Now she's going nuts for the things! Sarah shot a video for me of my little angel enjoyin' those little o's.

My girls are gone!

This morning, at about 6:30 my girls left for Salem, Mass.

Sarah and Natasha (along with Carolynn and Baba Lex) have gone down (by car) to spend some time with the Loretta, Randy, Andre and Khira. This will be Sarah's last and Tasha's only chance to see the house on Salem, before the whole clam moves to Kingston this summer. I know Sarah was looking forward to the trip and I really want them to have a good time. They're going to be gone until the 7th of May. Eight days.

Eight days.

Eight days?

EIGHT DAYS!


I've never been apart from Tasha more than twelve hours. This is going to be very, very challenging.

Before they left this morning, Sarah put Tasha in bed with me. She immediately snuggled up and stared at me with a very calm face. She took her hand and started gently stroking my forehead and cheeks, in a very soothing fashion. "Don't worry Daddy", is what I imagine she was saying.

So my eight month old princess and my queen are off on an adventure. Have fun girls. I'll be thinking about you - constantly.