Laundry Day!

Woot woot! Buckle your seat belts ladies and gentlemen, we're about to discuss the most interesting topic in the world ... Laundry!

Here's a little fact for your dudes who might be staying home, or thinking of staying home with your children ... there's a shit ton of laundry! (Perdon my French) I'm totally used to doing laundry for myself, ever since my mom taught me before I went to college. But I'm easy. I have 7 shirts, 2 pairs of shorts, and 2 pairs of jeans. (Do I wear underwear? You'll never know.) But add 1 woman, and 2 girls to the mix and that's a lot of laundry!! We all know women have a lot of clothes and younger women have TONS of clothes!

Z takes over Blackwell Photography tasks while Dad does laundry

One of the facts of being a Stay at Home Dad means you have to take up certain roles in the household you normally wouldn't. Laundry is one of them. Washing dishes, cooking and keeping the house clean are all other chores you find yourself doing as your wife sits in a cubicle and punches out sales. Is it fun? Not always. But if you get a good system going, it doesn't take forever and you feel so much better once it's all day.

I takes a nap, being cute and providing motivation

I think I need an apron. ;) I plan on having dinner ready for Stacey when she gets home from work this evening, but for now both of the ladies are taking a nap (Yay for planning that one correctly today) so I'm going to go on the clock and knock out some work.

Cheers!
-marc

Celebrating Stay-At-Home Fatherood!

Quick!  Zoe is going to sleep.  That means I have 45 minutes to an hour and a half to do whatever what I want!  Hmm...should I work?  Play XBox before the wife gets home?  Write a blog?

I'll write a blog!

Welcome to Wednesday!  Hump day.  And what a hump day it is.  Tomorrow is Zoe Toe's 5th Birthmonth!  You know those posts include a lot of pictures and videos.  :)  We've got some great ones you haven't seen yet. 

Ok...so far this blog is a flop.

Yesterday's blog, however, was apparently a hit.  I don't wanna go all high school on everyone, but when you say the word "friend" people start thinking "oh, is he talking about me? or so and so?"  Who cares?  Friends come and friends go.  My door is always open to anyone I've ever called a friend and I will always consider YOU a friend no matter how much time lapses between our visits. 

That being said, a friend of mine sent an article my way that I found interesting.  An interesting quote: "I think they [Dads] should also be encouraged to stay home with the kids. In fact, we should celebrate it. In the grand sweep of American lifestyle choices, stay-at-home fatherhood is possibly the only one that doesn’t get eulogized in our popular culture. I want to see the Bachelorette questioning her suitors on how many years they’d be willing to set aside for full-time childraising. I want a movie in which Matt Damon stays home while Beyoncé goes out to work. He can capture an escaped terrorist during the hours when the kids are in preschool."

And another: "But I’m seeing a long road ahead in which women are more and more likely to be the primary wage-earner in a family. Already, nearly a quarter of wives make more money than their husbands. And husbands are certainly taking more responsibility for chores and childcare than they did back in the day. But men who are the primary caregivers — out of choice or because they’re unemployed — are often looked upon as losers.
It would seem to me that a country that spent so many generations celebrating the stay-at-home housewife could work up a little enthusiasm for the full-time dad. Just saying."

I definitely don't consider myself a loser.  The exact opposite, I think I'm awesome!  And I'm not unemployed.  But I get the point that a lot of working class, older men do look at stay at home dads as "losers".  I've felt that from men in suits walking past me as I push a stroller in sweats.  It's just judgmental a-holes who I'm glad I don't work for (or look like) anyway!  Who cares what they think?

 You can read the entire article/conversation here.  Thanks for the lead, David!

I think this blog came out alright in the end.  Copying and pasting a couple paragraphs in the middle certainly did help a little! 

Have a good one!
-marc

p.s. the picture has absolutely nothing to do with the post ... but it's such a cool picture, don'tchya think?

Bloggin's hard.

Ya know, bloggin' aint as easy as it seems.  I started to blog yesterday, I really did.  This photo actually is from yesterday and I was going to tell you all about Zoe's stuffed animal, the JellyCat.  But I got distracted, and got distracted some more ... and by 10:00 pm when I thought: "Oh &*$# - I didn't blog", I didn't care. 

It aint easy comin' up with something interesting to say every day.  Obviously ... by the way this post is goin'.  I mean - waddya wanna know?  Zoe pooped today! :) Haha.  For real though, we (Zoe and I) dropped mommytard off at work early in the AM, came back, worked on our own stuff and then had lunch w/ my manager Rod.  He's totally in love with Zoe, it's cute.  Then we went to the park where we did "the loop" and I had a call with a potential client.  Now we're back, Zoe-Toes is swingin', gearin' up for her second nap of the day and I'm ... blogging! 

We're going on, what, the 4th week of being a stay-at-home dad?  Whew!  I listen to NPR a lot and hear that in "today's economy" (man, I hate saying "today's economy") there are a lot of stay-at-home dads.  Fathers have lost their jobs but the moms haven't so the dude stays home all day.  In fact, I see a lot of guys walkin' around w/ strollers and babies.  What's your take on this situation?  How do you feel about the roles being switched?  What's the first thing that comes to your mind when someone says "Stay At Home Dad"?  I wanna know!  Leave a comment and let's discuss.

Hope you guys are well.  I appreciate the readership.  Stay tuned!  I promise I'll keep thinkin' of something to write about. 

Peace,

-marc

We Miss Mommy!

The hardest part of Stacey going back to work ... is Stacey going back to work.  We're a team.  When one couldn't handle another dirty diaper, the other would change it.  When the other was just too tired to feed ZB, the other would make the bottle and pop it in our little girl's mouth.  If we wanted a second alone, we could.  But from 7:45 - 5:15 every day it's just me and Zoe.  Not that I'm complaining - having this much alone time with our baby girl is amazing.  But it's tiring!  And we miss our mom. 

Stacey is such a positive light in this world.  She's always questioning everything, trying to figure out the best way to be a better person.  She is an amazing mom who's heart is full of love for Zoe, me and her friends and family.  If you're lucky enough to get to know her, you should hang on for dear life because you're in for an exciting ride.  Having her around got me spoiled, and now that she's not here during the day it's really quiet and boring. 

So Zoe and I will hang out again all day today.  We're anxiously awaiting 4:00 pm, because on Friday's mom get's off work early!  We're still going to have fun though.  Maybe we'll go to the park today, or take a walk.  Our good friend Amy Paffrath will be heading over to work on her website a little bit today and yesterday Drew Seeley and I worked on his website.  I'm still able to get a little work done, but as Mrs. Blackwell reminds me often, my #1 job is Dad. 

Peace,
-marc

Now Playing: Mr. Mom.

Today starts my adventure as Mr. Mom.  I dropped my wife off at work at 7:45 this morning and came home with my 15 week old baby girl.  We turned on NPR, made some coffee and now as she naps I'm sitting down to post my first blog for 2010.

I thought about making a new blog to chronicle my new life as a stay at home dad ("SAHD"), but wanted to keep my current readers and figured making a new blog was just another thing to worry about.  I will be blogging from here for a lonnnng time.

What's on the agenda for the day?  I'm going to read a web building design book my brother Blake got me for Christmas, work on our 2010 Budget and Business Plan, take the X-Mas tree down and of course play with Zoe.  We'll see how much of that gets done, playing with Zoe might take most of the day.  :) It will be interesting to see how working from home works with an infant.  I'm going to take it slowly, and not try to get too much done this week but ease into being a SAHD, business man, photographer, web designer and blogger. 

If you have a second, stop by my beautiful and hard working wife's blog, facebook, and twitter to tell her how awesome she is for being strong and supportive.  We both never thought we'd be part of the growing statistic of families where the wife works, but we're taking it one day at a time with positive strides.  She's amazing, and I already miss her - but this will be good for us and the family.  We will be stronger and better in the long run. 

Alright - I guess that's it for today.  I want to promise more blogs, I always do - but I can't predict the future.  You'll just have to stay tuned and see what happens next! 

Much love,
-Marc, the new Mr. Mom!

Sittin' in Oklahoma with my baby girl...

It was around Christmas time last year that we made Zoe. Now, I'm sitting in my relatives' home in Oklahoma with my very own baby girl next to my side. I'm married and a dad. A lot changes in a year. Stacey just went out with one of her old best girlfriends and Zoe and I? We're just chilling next to each other. What better time to blog? Oh wait ... I think Zoe might need a diaper change.

Actually I wanted to change the design of the blog, then I figured I should post too. Why not, right? It's always around this time of the year when I think "Hmmm...I should blog more."

Hold on ... diaper change time.

OK ... man I thought of a lot to write about in that couple of minutes. Like, how lucky I am to have a loving wife who loves me and our little girl more than the world. I couldn't have asked for a better woman to be in my life for the rest of my life. She's perfect. Well, except for her tardiness, but I can overlook that. :) I see couples having problems and divorce rates going through the rough, an unhappiness running rampage between parents - but not with us. We're a team, and a damn good one at that.

Hold on ... time to feed the baby!

OK ... now my brain is getting too full for this post. I should blog professionally. I did back in college. Back in Oklahoma, only a few blocks from here I got $5.15 for every blog post I wrote. I could be a part of the mom and dad blogging community. Diaper companies and toy makers, feel free to send me samples of ANYTHING and I'll write about it. Send me samples and $$ and I'll write positively about it. :)

Next year will be crazy. After our trip to Oklahoma Stacey goes back to work at Advertise.com. I will be a full-time dad. That is my job. Photography is taking a backseat, as hard as that is to type, it's important for me to focus on the most important thing right now, and that's little Zoe. I never thought I would be part of the statistic of growing stay at home dads, but here I am, and happy to do so. Life will be a trip, like it always has been, but it will be fun. I'll still shoot on the weekends or after 5, and with RLP growing and becoming more successful I'll be able to create websites from home while watching Zoe! But I might stay in my sweats for weeks at a time... ;)

Having a child has been crazy. I know people do it all the time, but I've never done it before. My favorite part? When she smiles at me ... like she is now. It makes all the financial hardship, late nights, and difficult situations worth it. I've lost friends over Zoe, missed out on "opportunities" for work, and haven't gone to see a movie in 13 weeks - but I wouldn't change a single moment.

So here's to 2010. I want to show my baby girl that even though the world is way messed up, life is alright if you surround yourself with people who love you and who you love. Love is all you need!

Much love,
-marc