My Lack of Independence Day

July 3^rd, 7:12am

It’s going to be July 4^th again tomorrow so I should probably compose some brilliant reflection on the 3 years that have blazed by since I launched Dude of the House. Which angle should I take though? I could write about how when I started this blog on a whim I’d never even read a blog before. I had no master plan, just excellent source material from my 20-month-old Little Dude and plenty of time to write. Too much time, it seemed, and major concern about how would I ever fill it. That’s all changed. 

I should probably jot this down --  the boys are up and since they share a bedroom, if one is up, both are. I'll start at lunchtime.

July 3^rd 12:40pm

Working full-time from home is both a gift and a curse. Hearing the joy occurring on the other side of my closed office door often leaves me despondent, since there’s nothing I’d rather be doing than rolling on the floor with my boys instead of paying someone to do it for me. 

Sounds like Mrs. Dude has both boys in the pool. Are they calling me? Better go check...

July 3^rd 5:12pm

So much for finishing work early before the holiday. I’ll just start with a couple paragraphs before leaving the solitude of my office to join the group eager for dinner. Where to start?

Ooh, something smells good. Is that chicken? I’ll definitely begin after they go to bed.

July 3^rd 8:43pm

Honestly, can two kids ever just go to bed easily in the same room? Just when I had the Littler Dude asleep, his brother got out of bed to lay on both of us in the rocking chair, rebooting the countdown for everyone’s trip to dreamland. I think they’re both out now. Have to get out of this chair. I think my butt fell asleep, which I didn’t even know was possible.

July 4^th, 7:07am

Now I’m certain that my kids think it’s illegal to sleep in on holidays. Not sure how to teach them otherwise beside a serious investment in industrial-grade earplugs, door locks and soundproofing. My eyelids feel like they’re made of concrete today. Opening them is going to be a rough one but unlike my other, this job has no days off. I’ll take some time to write my post after breakfast. 

July 4th, 9:22am

Mrs. Dude made plans for us to head to the park with a couple other families for an hour? OK, I’ll start this afternoon.  

July 4^th, 1:39pm

Wow, that park was so hot that even the sweat rolling down my forehead was sweating, too. That’s summer in LA, for swelter or curse.

July 4^th, 2:11pm

Just got the Littler Dude down to nap & Mrs. Dude is taking his brother to the market. Here’s my chance to finally collect my thoughts. Oh, there are still lunch plates to scrape and a sticky mess on the floor. I’ll just get that stuff out of the way first, then jump back to my abandoned laptop. 

July 4^th, 2:33pm
July 4th party begins at 4:00? I guess we better get moving.



July 4th, 10:22pm
I just need to rest my eyes for a second.

Zzzzzzzzz.

July 5th
All day at the beach.
More fun than sun, which was a ton.
I wrote a poem?
My first one.

July 6th, 3:03pm

Ahhhh, silence. Now where do I begin? 

I could write about how I just realized that my 21-month-old Littler Dude is a month older now than his brother was when I started Dude of the House 3 years ago. He wasn’t even a glint in my eye then, yet now he and his brother consume more of my bandwidth, and paycheck, than anything else on earth. Not having time to actually write about parenting because I’m parenting, or working, is a good problem to have. 

How my new friends, the impossibly talented group of Dads I’ve met over the last 36 months, do it is a mystery to me. I’m still in awe of the relationships I’ve built that were beyond inconceivable when I wrote my first post, 200-something ago. Fortunate doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel about the things I’ve been able to do for, with, and most importantly, because of my children over the last few years.

Writing has opened up doors I’d never imagined existed, both socially and professionally, but even more significantly it’s made me more aware.

Aware of myself.

Aware of my children.

Aware of the power of what comes out of my mouth and my keystrokes.

I’ve been trying to figure out why I do what I do here and the reality is, I’m not the most organized Dude in the world. Papers and notebooks get lost over generations, though my assumption is that the Internet will be around for a while. Maybe my boys will stumble upon this someday and remember their first baseball game or a crazy day at the beach. That will have made the sum of this labor of love worthwhile. 

Until then, 3 years down and infinity to go.

Thanks for being a part of this journey with me. 

And thank you to the three people who make this, and everything in my life, consequential: