So when labor day comes around a great sadness hangs over me. My friend’s father punched his hand through the wall of his dining room when he found out. He asked us why we weren’t together. Why we hadn’t watched out for his son. He was in great pain and didn’t mean to blame us but he did. Some things will never make sense. My friend’s death in particular.

This labor day we cleaned. We put boxes in storage. We went to see a movie.

I put labor day behind me one more time.

Okay. Maybe this one answers itself.

Still.

How many kids actually do their summer homework when school is over? Yes, that’s a third question for those who are counting.

I mean, if school is over shouldn’t the homework be over also? Numero cuatro.

Isn’t the whole point of summer that you are released from structure for a couple of months? Numero cinco.

All I can say is that next year school isn’t over until the homework is done. Then it’ll really be summer. Well… that’s what I say now. We’ll see how things stand in June. I mean I had the same problem when I was M-ito’s age, only it was with homework during the school year, not over the summer. We didn’t have summer homework. And that was good.

“Dad-dito,” M-ito asks from the back seat.

“Yes.”

“Back in your time, when you were a kid –”

“Way back in my time?”

“Yes, way back then – what TV shows did you watch? I mean what cartoons were on way back then.”

“Well, way back then, we used to watch cartoons just like you did but the big day to watch was Saturday when we watched cartoons all morning. There wasn’t cable so we just had channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 13.”

“That was it?”

“That was it.”

“Well, what did you watch?”

“My favorite shows were The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Speed Racer, Gigantor, Whacky Racers, and Scooby Doo.”

“I like those too. What’s Gigantor?”

“Giant robot and a boy. Theme song is Gigaaaaaantor. Gigaaaaa-aaantor. And I forget the rest. It’s a cool song.”

“Yeah.”

“We watched the Banana Splits too and live action shows like Batman,”

“Superman,” Mom-ita added.

” – and Wonder Woman.”

“Yeah.”

“Any reason you wanted to know?”

“No. Just asking.”

I haven’t written on this blog because of the time it has taken to market my novel, write the blog for that website, and keep more balls floating in the air in front of me. But this season of school I don’t want to miss recording. I don’t want my son to miss out on a year when he looks back at this. Really this is a record for him more than me.

What has happened in the last 8 months? Everything.

M-ito is now nine. For his ninth birthday he saved the world with a group of close friends from the infamous Ratzso – once again.

My debut novel Open Wounds has been published.

M-ito has read all the Harry Potter books, seen all the movies, and as of last week experienced most of Universal’s Harry Potter World in Orlando, Florida. He loves them. We just watched The Sorcerer’s Stone … again… last night.

This summer M-ito figured out that baseball camp was the same as school only you learned only about baseball all day. He would like not to do baseball camp next year. He wants to be free.

We have two dogs now – Spike and Gracie, both Havanese. They wake me up at 6am to be taken out. Ugh.

Being a father is still the hardest job I have and the hardest job I know. And I still love every minute of it.

“Combie” – What is my son after spending too much time on the DS or computer… a computer zombie or a “combie.”

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,200 times in 2010. That’s about 5 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 56 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 222 posts. There were 4 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 2mb.

The busiest day of the year was October 14th with 33 views. The most popular post that day was 8th Birthday: A Save-the-World Party.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were laneyards.com, lunievicz.blogspot.com, web.mac.com, kerrymckibbins.blogspot.com, and facebook.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for lunievicz, lanyard tricks, zen dad-dito, dito games, and first grade stress.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

8th Birthday: A Save-the-World Party May 2010

Lanyard Tricks September 2009

Games for 6-year olds September 2008

Top Ten, Five-Year Old Games November 2007
4 comments

First Grade Stress September 2008
8 comments

M-ito – “If I have a brother or sister what will their names be?”

Mom-ita – “If we have another child and it’s a girl we’ll name her Lil-ita after my grandmother, just as you were named M-ito after your father’s grandfather.”

M-ito – “If we have a boy can I name him?”

Mom-ita – “What would you name him?”

M-ito – “Spike.”

It’s five years later and we are past being able to have a second child. It is an ache in our hearts that won’t fully go away.

We got a dog in July. It fell into our laps. It had been returned by the original adopting family to a trainer that we know who called us and offered him to us for adoption. He was a little 15 pound, 8 months old hypoallergenic Havanese, and he was already named – Spike.

“No, Mom-ita,” M-ito counters. “I drive you outsane.”

The camera zooms in on my face. It’s Sunday morning and it’s my birthday. No wait. Rewind. Go back to Saturday afternoon. The day before. I’m home after yoga class (a good day with 19 people and good pranic energy in the room). Mom-ita and M-ito are out shopping for various things including my birthday gift. The phone rings. It’s Mom-ita.

“M-ito has a gift all picked out for you,” she says cagily.

“Okay… ” I say, waiting for what sounds like is coming after. I’m picturing some Warhammer figures (a new game we’re playing together at a shop in Manhattan), or something yoga-like, maybe a cool stuffed animal that he will get soon after he gives it to me.

“It’s a DS,” she says quietly and waits.

“A what?” I ask.

“A DS i XL. He says you’ve always wanted one and that if you get one – you and he can play the game together at the same time.” She waits again. “He said you need the DS i XL version because it’s a bigger screen and you can’t see the small screen very well.” I think she’s trying to hold back laughter now but I can’t tell.”

I rack my brain. Have I ever told him I wanted a DS? Have I ever told him how much that would mean to me? If I did, and it’s possible, it was only to make him feel better because I would never in my life think that I would get one without someone forcing me to play with a gun to my head. Perhaps I have overstated that a little.  I took a deep breath and exhaled. We have only M-ito. “Of course,” I said. ”That’s very sweet. I’ll take the XL and I’ll jump on the grenade. It’s my turn. You’ve been playing Harry Potter on the Wii all summer (and loving it I should say because Mom-ita loves to play the Lego games) so it’s my turn.”

Now she laughs. “This is your iPad, you know,” she says when she gets her breath back.

“Thanks,” I say. An iPad. Oh that hurts. She did that on purpose.

M-ito couldn’t wait so I opened my gift that night.

Fast forward to the next morning, October 3, birthday morning.

I sleep until almost 7:30am and it’s wonderful. The bed is so warm beneath the comforter. The wind is blowing outside and making the shades move back and forth. M-ito is staring at me from a few inches away. “Happy birthday,” he says, eyes full of mischief. “Let’s play your DS.”

And with a hug, a heartfelt sigh, and a smile, I say, “Yes. Let’s play with my DS. I’ll need your help setting it up.”

Forty-nine  years on this planet and still counting.

• Wake up at 6am to do yoga practice and prepare for morning class. Asana and seated meditation then shower and get dressed for class.
• 7:15am take Spike-ito out for a walk.
• 8:30am leave to teach morning yoga class. M-ito and Mom-ita are still asleep.
• 9:15-10:45am teach class – students are back from vacations, class is packed, and life is good.
• 11:30am back home for brunch with Mom-ita and M-ito.
• 12:30pm take Spike-ito out for walk with M-ito. We talk about Warhammer games (our newest father son obsession), school, life in general.
• 1:30-4:30pm lazing around on couch with M-ito, him watching Saturday afternoon TV shows, me napping on and off, Mom-ita reading, napping, cleaning.
• 5pm head out with M-ito to the dog run for the first time. Mom-ita is napping.
• 6-6:45pm Watch Spike-ito make friends and play at the dog run. M-ito at first watches from the bench trying to read his book. Then after five minutes of watching Spike-ito run, wrestle, crash into cement pylons, run, run, and run some more with his new pals, M-ito gets up and joins in. He chases Spike-ito then meets the other dogs, moves our stuff next to the other owners on the other bench, and starts up conversations with the other owners like, “What kind of dog is yours? How old is he? Where did you get him?” It’s hard not to smile while you’re at the dog run. It’s a pretty happy place and the happiness is infectious. I marvel at my son and how he, as an eight year old boy holds himself and interacts with adults. As the dogs start to get tired we collar Spike-ito up and walk him home. All the way home we talk about the experience, what we learned about Spike-ito (he’s a high energy dog, loves to run, is faster than the average dog, gets knocked over a lot but like the energizer bunny keeps on going, loves, loves, loves to play, and how much he needs a bath after all the slobbering from all the other dogs and the dirt and dust) and what we’d like to do when we get home.
• 8pm our pizza from Louie’s arrives. M-ito loves their pizza.
• 8:15-10pm we watch Diary of a Wimpy Kid, all three of us and sometimes four of us (Spike-ito included) seated across the couch, laughing. Ice cream included as dessert.
• 10pm Mom-ita takes Spike-ito out for his final walk and M-ito and I head to bed. We read for a few minutes then its lights out.
• 11pm Mom-ita joins us.