Last night I was trying to get Ona comfortable and sleeping. She seemed only comfortable on my chest, but that’s not the best sleep for me so I was up thinking random junk all night. I was thinking about the upcoming Turkey Day and all the “what I’m thankful for” discussions. I figured this year’s will be easy, I can just pick up Ona and hold her over the table, Simba style. So, to challenge myself, instead of thinking about what I am thankful for, I started thinking about what I’m looking forward to. Having a kid really gives me a lot to look forward to, but even aside from Ona doing stuff, there is a lot coming up very soon…

  • Sean, Dee and Isabella are visiting. They so rarely come east (last trip: our wedding in Jan 2004) and we’re wicked excited about it. Sean hasn’t seen my house yet and there is something cool about big brother approval of something like that. Plus, we’re gonna go drive go karts and get our drink on and have a good time. Yay!
  • Holiday Season. I love that time of year – I love Christmas Day with Katy, and then there is my birthday (used to be “yawn”, but Katy has made it something I look forward to) and our 4th wedding anniversary (mmmm). Hopefully we’ll be able to drop the kid with a grandparent and do something special.
  • Guy’s ski trip with Troy and Scuba Steve. We’re hitting Colorado in March, the first time just the three of us did anything since, errr, hmmm, winter 2000? Wow, 8 years? Doh. Should be wicked fun, thanks to ski blades being the easiest things to ride on a mountain.
  • Rock Band! Haha, I’m such a nerd, but Rock Band is coming out soon and yeah, I’m going to play a drum kit video game in my living room. I may as well go all over the top and wear a bandanna head band or paint my face or something. Nerd all the way, but sooo excited about it.

After thinking about that stuff, I started thinking about everything Ona will be doing in the next year. I don’t really know what milestones go with what ages, because I avoid parenting books like the plague, but I’d imagine in the next year she’ll be rolling over, laughing (she’s close now), crawling, maybe walking and hell, maybe saying a word or two (or making a sound and us pretending it was a word, either way works). It’ll be cool to see all of that unfold and to start to see her have a personality. That’ll be wicked cool. Of course, I started thinking about all the things I’ll be seeing and envisioned her running around playing games, riding bikes, building things, going crazy.

The one image that stood out that I just can’t wait to see is Ona being proud of herself. I think that’ll be one of the happiest moments for me. So many different emotions will come into play – from being happy for her, proud of us for helping her get to that point, and on and on, all boiled up in one seemingly tiny event. That’s what I’m looking forward to now.