Today is a holiday that is very special to me. You see, I enjoy Easter just as much as I do Christmas. And, just like Christmas, today’s holiday can sometimes get lost in the commercialism and political correctness of our society. We try our best not to fall into this trap because Easter comes after the Lenten season and at the end of Holy Week, important periods on the religious calendar that help us prepare for today’s important feast. However, I would be dishonest if I said chocolate eggs, pastel colors, and fresh ham don’t occasionally cloud my focus.

But I am doing my best today to remember and celebrate what this holiday is about, primarily that our faith is not baseless. Today Jesus Christ rose from the dead and gave justification and hope to the billions of people on this planet. The Resurrection is about faith, love, and redemption; it is also about new life.

The newness of life brought into our family recently helped me to understand the newness of life that we celebrate today on Easter.

As you can imagine, the “new life” part of the equation especially resonates with me this year. When Jesus rose from the tomb, he gave us all the chance to start new, both in this life and in the next.

It is just like when a baby is born. There is nothing more innocent nor special than a newborn. A whole life awaits them, full of opportunities and possibilities. You can’t “start new” much more than that. They say that becoming a parent increases your faith in God and I can now attest to that. When I look at Sloan I can see that pureness, I can see that innocence, I can see that vulnerability that makes her so perfect and redeemable.

Happy Easter! Sloan didn’t even need to wear the bunny outfit to teach me more about this special holiday.

These beautiful characteristics of Sloan paint a clearer picture for me of what new life looks like not just from the obvious standpoint of a brand new baby but from the bigger vantage point of what all of us aspire to. Because God raised his Son from the dead, we ourselves become more pure and innocent, just like a newborn.

It is amazing the secrets that become available inside your heart once you have a baby. Sloan has helped me to understand and love Easter even more. Don’t Blink.

I have alluded to this a couple times in recent blog posts but I wanted to address it in an official manner. Almost four weeks ago, I was given the biggest blessing of my life when Sloan was born. In just under a month since that beautiful day, I have enjoyed every minute of being a dad. Although I knew going in that my time commitments would be dramatically altered once she was born, the last 26 days have confirmed it.

In order to give my full attention to my family, I have ceased certain activities and practices. These have all been worthwhile sacrifices in my pursuit to spend more time with my wife and daughter. I won’t go into detail on everything I have cut out but if you read Don’t Blink, you have probably noticed one thing:

I am blogging less.

For the past 4-5 years, I have been a full-time blogger. I have made it a point to blog at least five times a week. Giving Don’t Blink priority over other activities was cool when my responsibilities were less but things change when you are suddenly in charge of another human being. I won’t delve into the time that is demanded when you are writing and formatting blog posts on a consistent basis because I have done that before. However, I can tell you in general terms that it is a lot.

Now don’t think for one second that I am throwing in the towel on Don’t Blink. Hardly. I still plan to post 2-3 times per week. There might even be instances where I do find the time (in the wee hours of the morning or on Sundays) to publish the number of posts per week that you have come to expect over the years. But those instances will be the exception, not the rule.

There is a piece of me that feels like I am letting my dedicated readers down but I hope everyone can understand. As for my condensed schedule, I plan to still publish a Sunday blog post each week. The Thursday Rundown might morph into something I do every other week. While the Rundown is an easy post for me to write, I don’t want each week to consist of a regular blog post and then just a Thursday Rundown blog post. I feel I owe more to my readers than that. So, with that said, I hope to offer at least two well-written, non-rundown posts per week. Yes, this means you might see a non-rundown formatted post on occasional Thursdays.

I appreciate all the support given to me by my readers over the years. I still look forward to your enthusiasm and feedback. Remember, this blog is not going anywhere – the posting frequency will just be tweaked a bit. Don’t Blink.

Not a terribly long Sunday blog post today, which is probably a good thing. Since giving birth to our baby girl, she has strategically taken time away from my normal blogging pattern so I can no longer bore you with posts that go on past 700 words. Besides impacting Don’t Blink, she has also evolved my thinking in a few other ways. How about I just give you five of them?

Since having Sloan, my thinking has changed.

1. The World is a Scary Place – When I was a kid and adults would tell me “the world is a scary place” and that they “worry about the environment their kids will grow up in” I didn’t really get it. However, now I do; at least just a little bit. This past week with the chemical attack in Syria and President Trump’s cruise missile response, I felt some fear for Sloan. She is growing up in an age where all it takes is some noxious gas being discretely released to kill thousands and an age where our country seems to be picking up more enemies each day.

2. All Planning Relies on My Baby – Of course I knew that our lives would change dramatically once Sloan was born but now it is just so much more real. Since she arrived in this world, whenever I make a plan, whether it be short term or long term, I automatically think of Sloan’s schedule first before I think of mine. If we are planning something for three months from now, I calculate how old that will make Sloan and how she will react to whatever we will be doing or wherever we will be going.

3. Getting Through the Night – I used to have bad sleeping habits but then Sidney really helped me develop a better schedule. Well, so much for that. I am no longer focusing on getting seven hours of sleep a night but rather focusing on planning out the three times during the evening hours when we will be feeding Sloan. however, although I really grew to enjoy getting an adequate amount of sleep each night, I don’t mind staying up with Sloan because it is a great way to bond.

4. The Worry – My mom tells me that now I have a daughter of my own, I will never stop worrying again. So true. Even at her ripe old age of three weeks, I have plenty of paranoia. Is she eating enough? Why did she make that noise? Is she uncomfortable? Am I holding her right? Will other drivers on the road make good decisions while she is in our car? Are we aiding her development? etc. etc. etc. I constantly tell myself to just relax, but the worry is always in the back of my head.

5. Am I Doing a Good Job? – I have great parents. Sidney has great parents. I feel the pressure to follow in their footsteps and be a great parent as well. But I have found myself asking this over the past three weeks: Have I done as much as mom and dad did when they had me? In Sloan’s first 23 days of life, have I done as much for her as my parents did for me? I am constantly wondering if I am giving Sloan what she needs and deserves. 

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So now that you know what is on my mind, it is time that I sign off and go back to my daughter. Oh yeah, I might watch a little bit of golf today too. Don’t Blink.

I have gone on record before saying how much I love the month of March. However, this past March was by far the best one ever. In fact, from now on I will forever look upon the third month of the year with even more adoration than before. The birth of your child seems to do that to you.

You can’t have much of a better month when your daughter is born.

What a crazy and beautiful ride March 2017 was. It was perfectly broken up in two halves. The first couple weeks saw us preparing the house for Sloan, purchasing last minute necessities, and celebrating baby showers at work. Then, just like clockwork, things became a lot more real at the midpoint of the month on March 15. Sidney went to the hospital that morning and the doctor made the decision to start the labor process. A couple days later on St. Patrick’s Day, the best moment of our lives arrived as Sloan was born. The next two weeks would bring joy, surrealism, and enlightenment.

I accompanied Sloan to her first pediatrics appointment (this is me feeding her in the examination room). She had a great report!

April hit this weekend and it will no doubt be a second consecutive “best four weeks of my life” type of month. It will be our first full month with Sloan and we will undoubtedly fall even more in love with her as we delve into a routine and bond with her even more. April will be marked by a visit from her west coast grandparents as my mom and dad will arrive in Myrtle Beach on the 19th. We will also be able to share Sloan with Sidney’s extended family members and our friends as well. Yep, big things are in store for our baby daughter this April as the world opens up to her a little bit more each day.

The world opens up a little more each day for Sloan.

Making this month even a little sweeter, we will celebrate my favorite holiday, watch my hometown basketball team play in the national championship, and enjoy The Master’s/MLB Opening Day.

Life is good when you have so much to look forward to. Thanks to Sloan, we won’t have any shortages of motivation and excitement for a long time. Don’t Blink.

Yesterday I returned to work after my paternity leave. Going back to work after an extended time away from the office is always hard, but it is especially hard after the birth of your first born. On Monday morning I fed Sloan her bottle and kissed her (and my wife) goodbye. As I drove to campus, I had a new major motivation to work as hard as possible during the day so I could finish on time and get back home as soon as possible.

Technically, my paternity leave started that Wednesday when Sidney was admitted to the hospital. However, that whole five day stretch was more of a birthing battle than a time of leave. In my heart, I consider the entire week I got to spend with Sloan out of the hospital, starting that Monday morning when we were released and ending this past Sunday evening, as my true paternity leave.

It was a beautiful week. By the early afternoon that Monday, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law came back to our house with bags and bags of groceries. The contents in those grocery bags would feed not just our small family of three but Sidney’s family too, as her parents and sisters (along with their significant others and children) would join us for a week of meals to celebrate the birth of Sloan. It was a joyous time for everyone.

My paternity leave was spent bonding with my daughter and wife.

During the day when everyone was at work, the East Coast Resers (as my siblings refer to us) still had my mother-in-law to help us out. Brenda took time off from work to put Sidney and I in the best position possible to start off as great parents. She cleaned our house, did laundry, taught us baby techniques, took care of Sloan so we could sleep, and so much more. It was very nice having her around. When she left at night, it was almost like we were internally calling out Wait…do you really have to go?

But we managed to make the time special when it was just the three of us. During those evenings, Sidney and I would look on at Sloan and comment about how lucky we were. We would both jump up in the middle of the night to take care of her when she needed to be changed or fed. We would discuss who she looked like more (Sidney all the way!). We would watch episodes at 3 a.m. of a certain Netflix series we managed to complete during the week. We would doze off in a state of happiness when time allowed.

And of course we would rise in a state of happiness as well. The sun shined that whole week, a weather pattern that served as a metaphor for how we felt; bright, optimistic, joyful. I would run around our neighborhood in the mornings, knowing that when I would return from my exercise I would have a beautiful wife and daughter waiting for me. We would eat breakfast sandwiches, bagels, and fruit while watching Sloan sleep in a rocker in the living room. We would lazily watch morning TV, taking turns holding the new gorgeous baby taking up residence in our house. We would smile about our new lives.

I will forever remember and cherish last week. It was a time of bonding not just with my new daughter but with my wife. I will also always hold gratitude toward my mother-in-law for doing so much for us. What a lucky guy I am. Don’t Blink.