Fake Baseball Playoffs, Gettin’ Halloween-y and Daddy Can’t Dress the Kids No Mo – How Was Your Weekend?

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Seth

Friday

Ian and I didn’t leave Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights until 2 a.m. That’s what happens when it takes 2 1/2-hours to get there from Orange, the place is packed with college kids and lines take two hours. After traffic leaving the venue and dropping him off, my head didn’t hit my pillow until 4 a.m. I woke up at 6:30 a.m. And that’s late for me.

So I slugged on at work. Minus the foggy spells, occasional nausea and yawns, I held up okay. I don’t know how my wife and other night workers do this. You craze.

My wife worked so I ordered Papa John’s. My kids get so friggin’ excited anytime a pizza delivery person comes. It’s like it’s their new best friend.

Trying to soak up Halloween time, I thought it’d be fun to show them the Disney animated short film The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I was obsessed with this as a kid. I made the mistake of laying on the couch to watch it with them. I woke up two-thirds into it after Ellie kicked me in the stomach. Here’s a link to the flick if you haven’t seen. And please, read the comments. Please.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a big baseball geek. Our Strat-o-Matic league began the playoffs, and since I won my division, I got to play in the Divisional Series. My team, which won 91 games, beat the best team in my league, which won 116, Friday night thanks mainly to Mark Trumbo’s two three-run home runs in Game 4 of the series. His second home run came in the bottom of the 9th with two outs as I was losing 5-4. So yeah, I’m pretty in love with him right now. We are looking to fill some openings in the league, so hit me up if you’re interested.

So, so phalic.

Saturday

The kids wanted to play with blocks. Apparently they went to the Architectural School of Dr. Seuss.

With my wife asleep to prep for night two at the hospital, I needed to get the kids out of the house, so we went to Party City to shop for my Halloween costume. Which they didn’t have. After lunch at Wendy’s (I made Ellie try a french fry dipped in a chocolate frosty. And she liked it. It thought it was bleh.) we tried the local Halloween store. Gray was fickle about going, because he gets scared.

We parked, and both kids wanted me to hold them. I explained I couldn’t, but they didn’t want to go home. As we approached the entrance I picked Gray up, because he was panicking, and held Ellie’s hand. Turn up the volume in this video to sense the fright.

We entered the door and immediately zombies, skeletons and monsters surrounded us. Gray dug his face into my shoulder as I hurried down an aisle of kids costumes. We found the adult section, and again I couldn’t find the costume I was shopping for.

I let them look around a bit, then got them outside to leave. Ellie and I were heading for the car and Gray turned around and wanted to go back in. I told him he was scared and I wasn’t going to carry him, and that if he wanted to go back in he’d have to walk like a big boy. He thought about it for a few seconds and then headed in. Alone.

Watch how Gray just OWNS the store now with his new-found courage.

Gray is fascinated by skeletons playing guitars. And he came across this dandy, although it’s a banjo. And then Ellie broke out in some sort of jig.

With Gray’s fear gone, he went crazy. We searched every aisle, cautiously aware of the zombies, but not freaked out by them like before. He found an ax he fell in love with. Then he planted an Indiana Jones hat on his dome, called it a cowboy hat, and then hacked away at zombies, the floor and innocent store patrons.

Gray was pissed we didn’t take these home with us.

Ellie sassed her away around the store, now uber comfortable as well. She’d yell at me from across the store, prance in a mirror and then threw on this cowboy hat. We spent an hour and 15 minutes in that store. And it took a ton of convincing to get Gray to leave.

Hand on the hips???? ***facepalm***

At dusk we strolled through our neighborhood to find homes decorated for Halloween. It took us down a perpendicular street to two toddlers playing next to one of the more lit-up houses around us. The boy in the Batman shirt was 3 and the girl, Brooklyn, was close to 3. Gray walked up in his Superman shirt already into this. They ran around and played awkwardly, as toddlers do, for thirty minutes. Brooklyn’s mom loaded my kids up with juice boxes, which they rarely ever have, and we walked back home for dinner.

Kids digging our neighbor’s Halloween decorations.

After the kids went to bed my Strat-o-Matic team started the next round of the playoffs, the League Championship Series. I lost the first game 5-4, and the second 4-1. So ya. That Friday night high from Mark Trumbo was fleeting. Oh, and the big jerk got hurt grounding out and is now out the rest of the series. I’m screwed.

Sunday

In another effort to get the hell out of the house and let my wife sleep in silence, I took the kids to Tom’s Farm to check out the pumpkin patch.

“Where’s Tom and his farm?” Gray asked on the drive there.

I thought it’d be fun and easy to throw some wife-beaters on the kids and go. I mean, it’s a frickin’ pumpkin patch in deep Corona, right? My wife thought it was horrible as she scrolled through the photos on my phone later that night.

Ellie getting to work.

“We’re not white trash and we’re not homeless,” she said. I laughed. She didn’t.

Ellie picked up like 10 pumpkins before I banned her.

Getting her coloring on.

Gangsta.

From behind, it’s a mini Jax Teller.

As we left Gray kept asking to see his new friend Brooklyn. Neither kid wanted to go home yet, so I negotiated some play time with their new friends if they were outside playing at their house. As we approached their houses we creeped by like an ominous vehicle in South Central neighborhood in the ’90s. They weren’t out playing so we went home and took a bath, then a nap.

At night we went to church, dropped the kids off at my parents for a sleepover and went on a date. To Lucille’s for dinner, and then home. My wife was exhausted, I was still sluggish from my two hours of sleep early Friday morning and really, just being together without kids is a big enough win for the both of us at this point.

Mickey’s Halloween Party is coming up this Wednesday, along with a trip to the pumpkin patch at Tanaka Farms. Also, keep your eye out for Jax’s second year of Halloween this week.

How was your weekend?

(T)GIF – This One is for Jax

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Seth

As I’ve mentioned, Jax loved Halloween. We received a costume catalogue in the mail and he would study every single page. Every single day. What he wanted to be that last year for Halloween changed daily. But there was one constant admiration of his – Ghost Face from the Scream movies.

I had a Scream game for my iPad, where you play as Ghost Face and stalk characters on different levels and slash the screen with a finger to engage the knife. He begged me to let him watch me play. If it was up to him, his last Halloween he would’ve been Ghost Face. When I said no, he asked how old he had to be. I told him 7. After Halloween that year, I purchased a decorative poster for his door which had a large picture of Ghost Face. I showed it to him, and he was thrilled to tape it up at the next Halloween.

One day while drawing with my wife, he was copying happy faces she drew. She asked him what he wanted to draw now, and he drew Ghost Face. While not exact, when compared to his happy faces, you could see the obvious discrepancies. It was awesome. And finally, while feeding the infant twins milk one night, I let him watch the first fifteen minutes of Scream. He sat on the couch, jaw to the floor, eyes as big as softballs, silent. Then Ghost Face started to chase Drew Barrymore from with his knife and it was time for bed. He asked me to leave the light on in his room for the first time. I wonder why?

So this, my Jax, is for you.

(T)GIF is a regular Friday feature at Smiling Through Tearz. Know of an animated gif that makes you tinkle with laughter, cry or cringe that you think should be featured at STT? Let me know at seth@smilingthroughtearz.com.

Jaxson’s First Halloween (PHOTOS)

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Seth

But first, some site stuff. My friend Ian and I are trekking out to Universal Studios after work for Halloween Horror Nights. I will be posting live on Instagram (sethtearz) and Twitter @sethtearz tonight (NO FACEBOOK!), so follow me to join along in the fright fest.

As the days of the calendar rapidly fall off of October, I figured a fun way to count down to Halloween would be to post Jax’s costumes, in order, from his first Halloween. So here we go.

First Halloween

Two weeks before Jax’s first Halloween I was shipped off to Hopkinton, MA for five weeks of training at my new job at a mega insurance company. He just turned 9 months. It crushed me to miss his first Halloween. My wife sent me photos and updated me about the severe fires just down the freeway from our house. It was bad enough that she took photos of our possessions in our house for insurance purposes, should our house burn down. Fortunately it didn’t get any closer than that.

But it was an unusually hot Halloween. While I was partying in downtown Salem, MA in 45 degree weather, my wife and family were sweating it off on a 85 degree night with smells of a bonfire.

We picked out Jax’s furry first costume at Old Navy, and never imagined it’d be as hot as it was. Our criteria was cute and warm. So he was a skunk.

Jax skunking it up at our coffee table.

“Candy? Really? F you, Mom. I want PUFFS!”

“Look at all this colorful stuff my parents won’t let me eat until I’m 3. Jerks.”

Next week I’ll post pics of his second Halloween.

CHOC Walk – How Was Your Weekend?

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Seth

Iron Jax group shot at California Adventure.

Shortly after Jax died, my great friend Sam, who was working for Disney at the time in the art department, first told me about the CHOC Walk. He has worked many special events at Disney, and worked for this event and figured my wife and I might be interested in supporting the Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

I was hesitant. I was still deep into grief, and I didn’t want to walk around with a bunch of families celebrating the hospital that saved their kids. Ours died there. We can skip this.

But I told my wife about it, and because of her strength and her more optimistic outlook, we registered as a team. We figured some family members would walk with us. We didn’t recruit people to join us. But in six weeks our team went from maybe 10-15, we figured, to 80. We raised $10,000 as a team and Sam created the best logo for a t-shirt at the Walk, which we clipped capes on the back of. And Iron Jax was born.

On Sunday, Sam, his new wife and his mom, who has known me since the third grade, walked with 50 of our friends and family to remember Jax. To honor him. To celebrate his super hero spirit of life.

This is how the CHOC Walk weekend went.

Friday

Friday was wristband/t-shirt pick up night at my parents’ house. But unlike last year, only a few people stopped by. Most packages were distributed in groups. We watched the Dodgers lose to St. Louis in extra innings in game one of the National League Championship Series. And the twins set a new record of sound decibel in that house when a couple of friends stopped by to play with them. Gray screams louder than Ellie and her 4-year-old friend combined. That’s not a good thing.

Saturday

The early part of the day was pretty normal. Breakfast, play, lunch, play, nap. Because of my wife’s hard work and planning, we weren’t racing around working on last-minute details. She even grabbed some shut-eye.

Like last year, we booked a hotel room near Disneyland for the night before the Walk. It’s appealing to wake up, walk 15 minutes and not have to deal with the traffic of 15,000 people, many without their coffee yet, all driving to the same place.

But first we met my wife’s family at Buca di Beppo for a pre-Walk carb load. Her mom, aunt, brother and his girlfriend stayed in an adjoining room with us at the hotel, which makes for a fun time.

After dinner, we hit up the hotel to unpack. My wife and her mom went to Albertson’s to blow up balloons with a helium tank. They also brought back a six-pack of Shock Top and Lysol spray. Ever since nursing school my wife sees germs everywhere. The hotel remote. The floor. The bathroom. That couch. DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY BARE BUTTS HAVE SAT ON THAT COUCH? You’re disgusting for even thinking about sitting on it, Seth. (She’s never said that. It’s just what I imagine is going on in that mind of hers).

While they were out, I got the kids ready for bed. Because two pack-n-plays take up a large amount of floor space, I thought it’d be smart to get two queen-size beds and each of us could sleep with a kid. It’d be Gray and Ellie’s first time sleeping in a big bed. So after I unknowingly tossed Ellie’s long-sleeve shirt into the hotel trash (which we didn’t discover until just before check-out the next day, after a 15-minute hunt for it), I loaded the kids into the same bed. It was 9:01 p.m. I figured they’d be up a bit, then quiet down. I went next door to hang with the others.

An hour later full of giggling, playing footsie and “Daddy” requests, my wife came back. They were too excited about this newfound freedom. Usually they just reach through the bars in their cages (cribs) to touch each other. Now they have no obstructions.

Gray finally fell asleep. Ellie, however, wanted to p-a-r-t-y. She talked to herself. Sang to herself. When my wife finally went to bed a little after 11 p.m., Ellie wanted to watch her play on the iPod Touch, or watch TV. Anything but sleep.

The whole idea of them sleeping with us was a bust. Our 5 a.m. wake-up call came far too quickly. I found a little sleep between Gray kicking me in the nuts and my fear he’d fall out of bed. My wife had similar luck. At one point, Ellie was turning herself around like the hands on a clock.

Sunday

Fortunately my wife heard her alarm go off at 5 a.m, because I didn’t. She got ready, I showered and the twins woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I found a quiet moment to explain to Gray why we do the CHOC Walk, which they’ve been looking forward to. He stood on the bed next to me. I told him it is to remember Jax. And it was the first time I let myself have any emotion about the event. To avoid walking through streaming tears, I focus on the event aspect of it. What needs to be done. For the first time, my eyes welled with tears. Gray, normally go go go go, contemplated what I told him. It was a moment.

The twins were very excited.

With the twins loaded in the stroller and balloons, signs and posters in hand, we hurried over to Disneyland to meet the rest of the team.

It was still dark. My face was puffy – dehydrated and full of Buca di Beppo’s sodium. Our team joined up and we made our way inside.

As opposed to last year, Disneyland had the Walk begin at Disneyland. Because of this, the Walk went much more smoothly. We didn’t get stuck in the same spot for 20 minutes listening to Phineas and Ferb‘s theme song on repeat like we did last year. Talk about a near nervous breakdown. Naw, this year was noticeably better. Kudos, Disney.

Our team weaved around Disneyland, into California Adventure and finished at Downtown Disney. Gray and Ellie jumped between family and friends after we unstrapped them from their stroller.

Gray and I.

Ellie found older girls to walk with, and she went from being 2 to 12 in the matter of minutes. She ate up the attention, stuck out her hip at pictures and was in full tween mode.

Ellie with her girls.

Gray, however, hung out with me a lot.

And when we came across, Jake, his best friend in the world (or tied with Jack Sparrow), he freaked. The characters terrify him. He won’t let me stand near them even if I’m holding him. He starts to climb up my back to get away.

My nephew Liam, on the other hand, loved seeing Jake.

My nephew Liam loved seeing Jake.

After the Walk, my wife’s friend and co-worker gave my wife the a necklace she was wearing. The Walk was over. Everything went well. And it was time for my wife to unleash some emotion.

The day turned out as well as we could’ve hoped. We left exhausted but satisfied.

In all, our team raised $8,987. Thank you everyone that walked, sponsored a walker or donated to our team. It means so, so much to our family that you will help us to honor and remember Jax and raise money for a tremendous organization in his name.

Thank you.

On Monday, a friend of mine text me to say that my wife and I handled the day really well. She said she admired my strength. But it’s not me. I just follow my wife’s lead. She does all the heavy lifting for the event. I’m just a supporting actor to her Oscar-nominated role. And really, we don’t have much of a choice. What others see as strength, we see as our new life. We do what we have to do. For the twins. And to preserve Jax’s legacy. Our little hero.

Thank you Tim and Heather for your outstanding photos. I hope you don’t mind I used them here!

(T)GIF – I Hope You Like Spiders

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Seth

As October rolls on, I celebrate with another creepy GIF for today. I kill spiders all day long in my house. It’s one of the two things I do well at home. But if I came across this anywhere on my property, I’m burn the whole f’ing place down.

T)GIF is a regular Friday feature at Smiling Through Tearz. Know of an animated gif that makes you tinkle with laughter, cry or cringe that you think should be featured at STT? Let me know at seth@smilingthroughtearz.com.

Life is Busy – CHOC Walk This Sunday

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Seth

I’m at that point in life, which everyone hits, and hopefully not for an extended period, that life is just too busy. A lot of it has to do with the CHOC Walk coming up this Sunday.

I tried writing a post entitled Why We Support CHOC to explain the importance giving back in Jax’s honor is to us. It started like this:

Jaxson died at 9:26 p.m. at Children’s Hospital of Orange County on June 24, 2012. He wasn’t born a preemie or cured for cancer at the hospital, much like many of the participants for Sunday’s CHOC Walk 2013. For about three hours, the hospital staff did everything they could to save our boy. But it was after he left us that the CHOC staff’s grace, compassion and solace left an overwhelming mark on my wife and I. We lost our boy, but it was if they lost him with us.

The rest of it is deeply intimate and I decided against posting it. I tried to figure out a way to make it less intimate, but to me, it loses the impact. Just know that for us, it’s a very meaningful cause that honors Jax’s very special spirit.

At the time of this post, team Iron Jax has raised $7,314. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone that has donated, raised money and is walking with us on Sunday. Giving lasts until 10/31, so you still have time to donate if you wish.

Last night my wife and I were going to pick up the wristbands and t-shirts for our team at CHOC’s office building. Since people in southern California lose their minds on the first rain of the season, the 91 freeway westbound turned into a giant parking lot. It took her 45 minutes to drive two exits on the freeway, sit in traffic, turn around, get some drive thru and head home. With the twins in the car. Yayyyyyyyyyyy her. Awful, huh?

I was going to meet her at my parents. Instead, my mom and I went down to the office to deal with the money and pick everything up. By the time I got home the twins had just finished their milk and were going to bed. I helped my wife sort the CHOC t-shirts, attach safety pins to the capes for the Iron Jax shirts and create some more fundraising goodies.

Between my new commute, the new job, CHOC Walk and everything, I feel like I don’t have time to get to the blog. I have ideas, but either no energy or no convenient windows to post. So bare with me. And I think we are about 50 hours behind on television shows on our DVR.

For those walking on SUNDAY…

You can pick up the wristbands, shirts and capes Friday night at my parent’s house starting at 5 p.m. The twins will be there and we’ll have light refreshments, so feel free to stay and visit. If you need an address or my cell phone number, email me at seth@smilingthroughtearz.com or hit me up on Facebook and I’ll get back to you quickly.

On Sunday, we’re meeting at the lockers at the left in front of the Disneyland entrance. It’s the same place we met last year. The even starts at 6:15, we’re meeting at 6, but I urge everyone to try to be there earlier. Traffic is going to succcccccckkkkkkkkkkk.

Thanks again to EVERYONE. We love you all, and we feel your love in return. And it means so much to us.

(T)GIF – Gettin’ Creepy

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Seth

As you know, I’m pretty stoked about October. It’s time to get creepy. With that, let’s kick off a month worth of creepy (T)GIFs for ya. Good luck sleeping at night.