Security Blanket

Your Father: Blogger

Blogging, or web logging, is an art form that developed in short time after the idea of a world connected by computers. There are a few essential things to remember in keeping a journal of activities or events online such as this. Firstly, Titles and Tags are very essential in the keeping of good organization in a web journal. By having a properly titled entry the information contained in a post will be relevant to it's title. Also, assigning meta tags which are relevant to the content of a post will make it easy to find information contained in your journals for future generations.

The next thing to consider is your content in general. A paragraph should contain complete sentences which carry out the communication of the ideas relevant. If your blog contains large amounts of informal code, or personal notes in shorthand it will be of little to no use for any individuals of future generations looking back on your compiled works after you are no longer around to answer to interpretations of your notes. This form of writing should be reserved for personal hard copy notes in your study or at your work bench. Information and ideas which are communicated in a web journal should be strictly informational to an audience other than yourself.

These fundamental basics will also result in further health to your blog in the process. Your blog will respond well with search engine crawlers when your tags, titles, and content comply with these guidelines. By having well organized and gathered content your web logging experience will reap great rewards personally and to the collective intelligence assembled on the internet.

Hendrickson

Yesterday, your mom, your grandma, yourself, and I all took a 3 hour ride out to Gretna Virginia just a little south of Lynchburg. We did this with all intention of you meeting your great-grandma and great-grandpa. And also, your grand uncle Larry and your grand aunt Gale. Ben and Shirley Hendrickson are the parents of Pearl and Larry Hendrickson. Larry married Gale. Pearl gave birth to your mom and your aunt Britt.

If at any point in the future you decide you would like to know more information about previous generations in this side of your family you should ask your mom or grandma. There was a great deal of fuss over you while we were there, which is understandable with you being such a beautiful baby boy. Your Great-Granddaddy Ben gave you a small teddy bear wearing a Philadelphia Eagles football jersey. Your uncle Larry gave you a walker and a reign deer.

university

There will come a time in your life, when you have reached a collegiate way of thinking. This will be brought about through a lifetime process we call aging and it will involve much schooling and learning. In eighteen years time it is typical of a young individual to complete a High School Diploma. Also, it is possible that the individual completes a GED certificate in lieu of the diploma. Either way our social norms as a species has become as such that one of these two things are essentially expected of you as you begin to carry out any form of business in the "real world" of our civilization.
As you find yourself browsing through these journals which I have kept for you and you have completed this basic level of learning I will mark them with a meta label "university". You can perform a search through this blog then using this keyword in order to find any documents which specifically pertain to your Post Graduation Era.

I myself have thus far taken the following classes:

ITN 111, PSY 230, SDV 100, PED 116, HIS 215, REL 100, BIO 111, BIO 211, ITE 101, ENG


Obviously, this list continues to grow and various other classes and certifications have also been acquired. I post to you these standings I myself have obtained in order to give you a benchmark by which to gauge my advise given on to you. I hope that you find your higher education experiences each have exciting and challenging adventures each of which you should address in a most energetic and optimistic approach. With the right attitude and a belief in Christ all things can be possible for you.

Family Ties

Early this morning we arose and packed up the car with every possible necessity for a couple day trip. We had planned on it only being a day trip, however it is always wise to err on the side of caution. We then headed North to Winchester, VA where you were born to attend a family reunion hosted at Calvary Church of the Brethren on 522. It was a day filled with adventure, from long hours spent on the roadways to get there and to get back home, to a round of pass the baby that seemed to go on for as long as the roadways. I can tell you son, you enjoyed every second of all the attention. You were able to meet many of your cousins and extended family.
I would have much more to say of this except your father is exceptionally weary from much time spent driving today. For this reason I am having a little trouble drawing the words together properly. I will reflect more on this in the near future. Until then let me leave you with a simple call to always keep ties to your family. You have a large family exceedingly full of love and to lay this great asset to the wayside would be a great shame.

Always Growing: New Motor Skills

I can report to you slightly after 4 months and you are able to shake a rattle. You show strong understanding as to the concept of shaking the rattle in order to make sound, and in the concept of like items that are rattles that make this noise. You have a monkey face on a fabric stick sort of rattle and you prefer to shake it slowly back and forth harvesting out of it a soothing sound. Also, your favorite toy Squirtle the Turtle, has a mirror in his belly and a rattle for each of his four feet. You shake him back and forth the length of your torso to create the similar sound from him.

You also have a third, a hard plastic rattle that came as a fixture to a play surface we got for you. It can be separated and this is how you prefer to play with this toy. As you can also use the hard plastic as a sort of teething ring. Did I mention your teething as of now.....

Your ability to get up a crawl around is all but near around the corner for you at this time. Indeed you are learning new and interesting motor skills at an exponential pace. I seek that you would find such great excitement as your son also begins shaking a rattle with meaning. With complete understanding as to the concept of shaking that rattle, and how he is now become a "little scientist". Guard him dearly!

Speaking of Your Mother

Speaking of your Mother

Your mother deserves a great deal of credit in your upbringing. She is consistently there for you, is very observant of your needs. She does read this blog on a frequent occasion as I have set her web browser's home page to it. Now that I have routed the address http://jacob.hiett.info to this blog it has made that quite easier.
It is because she reads here that I seek to provoke her interest as well as your own frequently here. Perhaps serving in the present now as a channel of communication between your mother and I, but also having value in the future to you as a testament of our love and partnership. Our great journey that we embarked upon together, an agreement between a pair to act as a team in the raising of a young human boy.
Most times I do know that there really isn't any other person in this world that I would rather be in this partnership with. Having said that, it is also true that your mother and I do not always agree on all things. This is typical in any team. We deal with each of these situations in such a way that ultimately promotes love.
Every couple has points such as these and when the time comes that you yourself are raising a child you should reflect back on some of these truths and think to help your wife out a little extra today. Let her know that you love her by reaching out to her in some slightly off pattern way.
In a man's life he finds that at times there is a steady grinding away at time. A man may not be sure of much and he may contemplate on a lot. Anything you can do to help you remember to stop and smell the roses is a great investment of your time.

My Rachel,
I love you with all of my self. Our quest to raise this child with you is the most important thing in my being. I will do anything for you, because of you.

My Son,
May the love that I teach, and bestow upon this family never be lost. May the message of God's love for you be readily upon your lips. I hope for you that in your life you can find truth, and find love.

How I Met Your Mother

A fabulously funny sitcom show, entitled "How I Met Your Mother", has maintained a few successful seasons in the past few years. Your Mother and I both enjoy this show, and if you ever get the chance to view it, you will notice some of the ironic similarities between the show and this very blog I have kept for you. The inner story here is that one of the stars who is cast in the sitcom hit is Neil Patrick Harris, who also played the leading role in the show "Doogie Howser M.D." That show had a couple of successful season when I myself was just a young impressionable young lad. In fact I can remember it as a time when I was in elementary school and was beginning to keep my first journal. In this classic Neil, then a teenager, would make an entry into his computer journal at the end of every show.
I suppose you could say I began to find my passion for words from the example set by this show. It empowered me with the idea of collective knowledge, and the idea of what good things could be found and determined through keeping a journal of things.
Well this post is titled "How I Met Your Mother", therefore if your reading it you are probably interested to know. I will tell you. It all started when I was working on a landscaping job and needed to purchase a cell phone so that I would have a consistent phone number for certain contacts to reach me. In my free time, I explored options this phone had and online abilities. There was this game I found online with my phone that your mother also happened to be playing on at around the same time.
Now, there are plenty of other stories that all fall into place with this and I am sure over time we will explain them all to you my son.

Doctor Visit

Your 4 month check-up:

Your Doctor:
Colonial Heights Pediatrics--
Dr. Ahmed Shahab-uddin MD FAAP
16011 Kairos Road Suite 100
Colonial Heights, VA 23834
(804)520-2600

The appointment:
9am August 8th, 2012

The Results:

14 lbs. 12 oz. and your head is 16.5 inches around. At this visit and your growth curve is doing wonderfully. You got your 4 month shots, which caused only a minor fuss. The Doctor says everything about you seems healthy and happy and he recommended to your mom and I that we keep you right where you are on foods until closer to 6 months when we can begin to expand on your food choices some more. You will have your next doctor visit then at about 6 months.

Very well done at this doctor's visit son. You are certainly well on your way to becoming a young man. You met a new man today who is a VCU Medical Student and he also is a father so he was very well knowledgeable into the process of infant teething. Gerber baby food and Pampers diapers abound.

And I now include this, a photo of your mid day nap after having your big day with your doctor.

Teething

It has apparently become plainly apparent to me that the process of teething is quite an ordeal for a young little man such as yourself. Times that call for a soothing patient approach from a kind loving hand. Teething rings which are commercially available can be placed in the freezer giving a cooling, ache relieving effect for a time. There also, is a relief which comes from using large pieces of beef jerky which we allow you to chew on, UNDER CLOSE SUPERVISION. All little bits of jerky which you manage to break off are promptly discarded.

We are told that a slight fever is never anything to be massively concerned with during this process of teething, and we have noted a slight rise in your typical temperature during this time. Where you generally rest around 98.7 degrees now you will on occasion reach temperatures of 99.1. There is not much else we can do to ease your trials on this one except for to be there, talk to you in soothing tone, and hold you to take your mind off the aches which are brought about by this process of your little baby teeth breaking through the surface of your gums.

Your mother and I can not as of yet see the first little nubs of teeth, however we keep a watchful eye out in anticipation that there will be visible signs of teeth soon. Your hardened gums along with all of the other accumulated signs of teething bring us to this assumption. It is a passage that every man and woman alike take on the great adventure towards adulthood and there is not much need in making it out to be any more than what it is. You will get through it son, all in your own good time, and we are here to guide and assist you through each day of it.

When there are signs of first teeth, and when your first encounter with the tooth fairy occur I am certain you will find mention of each of the events here in this chronicle. Just as there are also many other milestones along the way which will each be worthy of it's own mentioning.