Neighborhood-Kids All Local. All for Kids. All the Time.

"Rain today, tomorrow, then cloudy with chance of rain on thursday.  More rain to come on the weekend."  It is the rainy season but if I don't get out I think I might turn into Jack Torrance!  Running in the rain takes motivation of a strange sort.

It is the getting going that is the hardest part, but once you are out there the rain actually feels refreshing.  Eli is totally unaware of what I am going through.  He just plays with a favorite toy (today it is the cow rattle) inside his little yellow bubble.  He shakes it, puts it in his mouth, bangs it against the side, and then coos as a car drives by or squeeks - loudly - if he spots a dog.

Get out, get wet, and remember "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!"

Hiking up around Multnomah Falls today.  Eli in the backpack.  It is kind of rainy but the suit he wears is super warm and the back pack has a little arch-cover to keep the rain off of him.  He loves it in that thing.  He coos and squeaks!

You know, sometimes babies just don't want to be dressed.

I, as the responsible parent, think that since it is freezing in my house if you stand more than 16 feet from the fireplace, babies should be wearing at least 1 layer of clothes.  I remember watching my sister dress her dolls when I was a child and I always thought it wasn't very realistic.  Shouldn't the baby be bending it's arms, kicking it's legs, and crying?  Do babies really just lay there, passively, waiting to be dressed in a frilly smock?

In the real moments of baby dressing, the way I cope with a complex baby maneuver such as "the stiff back arch" is to simply let him be naked.  I turn up the little heater and we stare at each other in the mirror.  However, I am wearing clothes.

The baby backpack sits on my waist and shoulders like a normal external frame should, however when loaded, Eli sits up pretty high.  He can see over my shoulder and coo or squeek at all the things passing by.  I have gotten to be pretty good at baring his weight so that when I am on my own two feet firmly on the ground I can manage to not lose my balance.  However, when I first popped on my skis I nearly lost it like Laurel or Hardy on the ice rink.
Whoop, whoooop, whooooooop!
There was a layer of recent snow, but it had been so cold over night that it was crackly, shiny, and slick.  I couldn't really do a classic kick and stand up tall like I normally do.  I kind of had to squat a little at my knees. Gaining my balance and confidence, I stooped low like a Sumo, and I started up the gentle trail.

We chose Salmon Ridge, the big parking lot just as you cross the Nooksack and before the big road climb up to Mt. Baker, because we knew there were not very many hills that I would have to try to negotiate with a baby-on-board.  The trails are groomed by the Mt. Baker Nordic Club.  So it is pretty popular on the weekends with classic Nordics, Skate Skiers, and Snow Shoers.  

Eli likes looking at new faces so when a new person went by he managed to get a reaction out of them.  "First time skiing?", asked the red faced, middle-aged woman.  "Ooooooh, EEeeeeg!"  The answer was yes for Eli, however I did see a young man with an empty Baby Bjorn who was going to try it out with his newborn and recovering mother.  We were certainly not alone in bringing kids up into the snow and Eli was certainly not the youngest.

We skied out for an hour.  The cool air, snow laden trees, and the silence only a snow-bound forest can create were all very refreshing.  Getting out and about and being outside just makes me feel so good.  We climbed the gentle meander that the old road follows and caught glimpes of Mt. Shuksan and the babbling Nooksack.
After we ate our sandwiches, fed Eli, and reloaded the backpack we turned back toward the car however what was different about heading back is that it is mostly downhill.  Now when it is just me on the skis, I like to just zoom down and pretend to be setting a new speed record.  With Eli on my back I was a tad bit nervous.  I had gotten used to the weight and swinging of his legs, but I still started with a snowplow just to be cautious.

The faster I went, the more he squeeked.  He loved it.  He loved it so much that after the next two slopes he was fast asleep; totally oblivious to the rocking and swaying and the trees and people passing by.

 

It is pretty cool to see all of the changes going on at the new Squalicum Creek Park.  The trail comes down West street from the Columbia Neighborhood, crosses Squalicum Parkway, and loops around the east side of the park.  From a vantage point on the ridge you can see all the changes the heavy machinery have rought on the old cement plant. 

The trail continues along the western edge of the Birchwood Neighborhood and drops down to a hairpin at Little Squalicum Beach.  The trail is railroad grade so jogging with a stroller is a snap.  Gradual hills and a smooth path make for an easy jaunt.  At the beach, Eli likes to stare across the water.  It is not often that we get the chance to spot things like boats and islands that are such a great distance away.  Stretching out the ol' eyeballs, especially after staring at a screen 2 feet from my face!

From the hairpin at LSqB, the trail loops back up a short steep climb to Bellingham Technical College.  The choice is yours:  Do you head down Patton street back to the trail or cruise down Eldridge and stop at Elizabeth Park.

With Eli the choice is easy.  He likes any park where there is a swingset with a baby swing.  You know the kind with the belt that goes all the way around his waist so he won't fall off.  That is where we are heading today.

Ooops!  Eli is waking up from his morning nap.  Gotta go! 

I have a BOB Revolution jogging stroller (thanks Grandma) that works great for me.  It has a little switch near the front wheel that lets the front wheel rotate like a grocery cart wheel or flip to just staying straight.  It also has a little dial next to the switch that makes it so that it is in the straight position it actually goes straight!  This is very important when running with a baby onboard.

TIP: If it drifts left when running then turn the dial counterclockwise.  If it drifts right, then turn it clockwise.  Turn it just a little at a time and test it.

So yesterday I ran from Boulevard park through Fairhaven, out the Interurban to the invisible train trellis at Arroyo Park, then back toward fairhaven.  It was at this point I decided to keep following the trail along Padden Creek and go down to Marine Park.  This little stretch it the bumpiest and steepest by far!

I figured this out with tired legs.  The stroller really started to take off and hit the bumps.  The first thing that came to mind was how pissed Colleen will be when she finds out I bailed.  Fortunately I am such a tremendous athlete that I managed to keep it all upright and on the path (and not in the creek)!

I have to say it has got to be the stroller.  It is heavy enough to keep itself upright yet light enough so that it does not feel like I am participating in the World's Stongest Man competition when pushing it up a hill.

After running with it for the last few months, I wonder what it will feel like to run without pushing it?

Eli and his friend Finn are going on their first adventure to the Chuckanuts today.  I figure the cool, rainy weather should not stop us from going.  Extra layers for all of us.  I have noticed when I put him in the baby backpack, I need to dress him in more layers than normal.  Legs dangling, head bobbing, and resembling a mulicolored stay-puff marshmallow man, Eli loves it.  Weather does not matter, he can manage to fall asleep in a backpack.  This makes me happy.  Rainy mountains here we come.

Cool is only a descriptive term regarding how I am feeling on this chilly morning.  I am cool in a literal sense and perhaps I periodically pull off the appearance of being cool.  Am I cool like Miles Davis’ “Birth of the Cool? Or like Snoopy’s alter ego Joe Cool?  Can this kind of cool still be achieved while pushing a stroller and wearing a milk stain on my shoulder?  I say, yes, but with mild trepidation.  I need to redefine what cool means, at least when it comes to being a cool daddy.

Being a cool daddy means to be a father who does more than just the bring-home-the-bacon, Stogy smokin’, sports page reading stereotype ala the patriarchal figure of Ward Cleaver.  A cool daddy gets into the trenches of raising a baby (diaper washing, bottle feeding, barfed up breast milk swabbing) and gets out into the real world of the streets (of Bellingham in my case) and it’s surrounding outdoor grandeur.  No sitting in the protection of your humble homestead!  Say yes, oh fathers, to getting onto the stage of soothing a disturbed baby in public. Watch the single men wince at your struggle and watch the women flash their eyelashes and give you that “what an adorable baby” look.  I get checked out, smiled at, and eyeballed so much more and interact with so many more people than the total anonymity I feel when I am by myself.  I feel so much more alive and aware of the moment.  I know it is simply because I am out and about with my adorable baby boy named Eli.  Being a Cool Daddy rips the sterotype of being a father from the detached, 1950’s era, bread-winner-only paradigm and replaces it with a father figure who is actually involved in the day-to-day saga of raising a child. 

Those interactions with people and the daytime adventures I have with Eli are what I will be documenting here.  I will teach you the ways and means of being a Cool Daddy.  Read on, my brother, and when questions arise in your mind and you are ready to seek advise then seek it from me.  Ask me your questions by commenting below.

• Cool Daddyhood is where you will find my philosophies and ponderings on defining modern fatherhood.
• Adventures of a Boy and his Dad tells the stories of Eli and I navigating the urban and rural, the yummy and yucky, the joy and pain of our time together. 
  
• Warm Fuzzies are endearing, cute, and cuddly anecdotes from a manly point of view.
  

I am a father in “the Ham” and proud of it.