Are you feeling Lucky?

Yes!

Exercise for the reader: Get another browser window open and go to http://www.google.com/. Type "Lucy Kleczka" (including the quotation marks) and hit the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

Expected Result: I have rigged it so the google "I'm Feeling Lucky" button will take you straight to a blog post about my little Lucky! Have you ever seen anything quite so cool?!

Laugh 1, 2, and 3

Lucy Kleczka laughed for the first time last night! It was amazing. Brief, but amazing. PuddleMama was attending baptism class and my good friend Seriously Dangerous Nick was hanging out with Lucy Kleczka and I (so there was another witness to this feat.) I immediately called up PuddleMama to brag that I just heard Lucy Kleczka laugh for the first, second, and third time. I heard the mixture of excitement and disappointment at not being there from PuddleMama that I expected. I appreciated PuddleMama's Facebook status later that night.

PuddleMama missed her daughter laugh for the first time. Effing baptism class!

Seriously.

I always anticipated that watching "firsts" would be an exciting and rewarding part of parenthood, but there is simply no way to anticipate the joy of watching your little girl start smiling because of gas, then smiling bigger because of gas, then start smiling because of you, then start smiling bigger because of you, then start almost-almost-laughing, then start almost-laughing, and then finally letting out a smiling, gurgling "Heh!" that makes your heart melt. Ridiculously amazing.

PuddleMama asked, as I'm sure most of you would, what I was actually doing to make Lucy Kleczka laugh. Well, I was actually just talking to Seriously Dangerous Nick. We were laughing quite a bit, so Lucy Kleczka just felt like she had to join in. Don't worry Seriously Dangerous Nick, I think she was laughing with us, not at us.

More please Lucy Kleczka!

FYI: I am not going senile. I did a google search on "Lucy Kleczka" and no hits were returned when I used the quotes. Hence I used "Lucy Kleczka" instead of just "Lucy" in this blog post to hopefully create some concrete hits on google. For the record, this blog did return as the 5th link if you did a search on Lucy and Kleczka without the quotes.

Happy Mother's Day PuddleMama!

Today is Mother's Day, and like every Mother's Day at 9:08 a.m. I am smelly, tired, hung-over, and just plain feel like a dirty gym sock. However, my yearly fishing opener weekend tradition doesn't mean that it isn't an absolutely special Mother's Day because it is PuddleMama's first one with Lucy. So, despite feeling like soggy Frosted Flakes left in sour milk on the counter for two weeks, I am writing a very special blog post for PuddleMama to wish her a happy mother's day.

After Lucy came, we decided to tighten our belts and start a stricter budget, so I spent a time thinking of how exactly to give PuddleMama something special (and cheap.) And as I was looking in my closet last week I saw the infamous "Poem Pants." When PuddleMama and I first started dating I used to wear a pair of khaki cargo shorts on some of our dates. I would write a few lines of rhymes, or even a full fledged sonnet, and slip the poem into the cargo pockets. I was usually rewarded with a kiss and smile. (And yes, I realize that I call them the "Poem Pants" even though they are shorts. I am not above a little literary inaccuracy for some cheap and satisfying alliteration.)

ANYWAY, I thought in the spirit of creating something special (and cheap) for PuddleMama this Mother's day I would revive the spirit of the poem pants, and write a special sonnet dedicated to PuddleMama and Lucy. Remember, making it more special, is that it is 9:14 a.m. on Mother's day and I feel like the runny diarrhea Clancy had when PuddleMama was pregnant (see previous blog post for more information on that fun adventure) and yet I am sitting here creating a sonnet on the fly (or should I say on the "bumblebee"?)

So here it is:



Lucky Bumblebees

A pair of gently floating bumblebees,
softly sparks the peering eyes below.
Her smile dances brief before it flees,
but not before igniting cheeks to glow.

The mother's matching pair of eyes above,
illuminate in sync with Lucky's light.
Her smile lingers as she thinks of
another ray of sun from her little sprite.

The mirror of smiles reflects the constant flares
of tender love and bond uniquely theirs.

Pretty good for writing it while feeling like the inside of a clogged garbage disposal, huh?

As I said, I was usually rewarded with a kiss after digging into the poem pants, but as part of my Mother's day gift to PuddleMama I'll postpone that collection of that reward until I've brushed the cigars/booze/potato chips/maybe something grosser out of my mouth. I know, what a guy!

PuddleMama, go look in the leftmost desk drawer. Lucy picked out a card for you. Can you guess what's on it? Oh. And because I'm in danger of feeling too much on the "cheap" side why don't you go get your hair did. On me. I love you and will be home in a few hours! Happy Mother's Day PuddleMama!

Below are Cliff's Notes on the poem for those who need it, but don't worry- there won't be a quiz.

Cliff's Notes:

Form

• This poem is a sonnet, my favorite poetry form
• It follows a typical rhyming scheme, abab cdcd ee
• It is written in iambic pentameter

Symbolism

• Lucy's name means "light", hence all the "light" imagery
• Lucy's initials are L.U.K and I call her "Lucky" as much as I call her "Lucy"
• Lucy loves two bumblebees that hang over her on her play-mat. They are by far her favorite inanimate objects (or maybe semi-animate as the bumblebees have painted faces)
• Lucy has beautiful blue peepers, much like her mother (Cliff is maybe stating a little too much of the obvious here, egh?)
• The card I gave to PuddleMama has two bumblebees on it!