At first glance you may think this is an article detesting how I hate how my life has changed, or even me passing knowledge of how to handle such life changes. It’s not that at all. In fact, I could care less if you have embraced or denied your changing life, because really that’s your problem. However, this is just me putting my amazement into words about how life has changed for me.

I have had many life changing events in the past three years, most of which were choices I made. Just to name a few, I got married, bought a car, bought a house, lost a loved one, my wife and I got pregnant, and last but not least my daughter was born. Now this may not seem like many changes, and to some these are normal, however I went from a non-married-living-at-home-video-game-junkie to husband, father, and provider in just under 900 days. Crazy.

My wife and I both have decent jobs and are much better off then most families our age, but we still worry about finances and the affordability of our choices before we make them. After all that is the responsible adult thing to do.

When we first got married and were going to rent a house we both were nervous that we could never afford renting, the utilities, and most everything else that comes with a house. But, despite our worries we did just fine, although we did have to cut a few dinner outings here and there. But that was easy.

After a few months of being married we decided to start trying for a child. We both had our worries in the back of our head. Could we afford a child? What if we need to move? Can we afford a bigger house? Can we afford child care? Are we ready? After discussing around and around all these items we came to the conclusion that we will never think we are ready, and we will never think we have enough money, no matter how long we wait. That’s just how people think.

We succeeded in getting pregnant in just over two weeks. Skip ahead……………. BabyKV is born and due to the fact we are now parents of a child we don’t go out as much, don’t stay out spending money late at night, and all in all enjoy ourselves at home with each other and the baby. Our fears of affording a child a thwarted almost instantly. Sure we are spending money on BabyKV but its money that we were spending on other things that really were not necessary, although very necessary at the time of the previous discussion.

6 months into BabyKV’s life we bought a house, moved, purchased lots of new things for the house, and updated a few places in the new house(paint, tile, door knobs, etc…). Money has not been an issue.

I guess the point of my post is to just go with life, take chances, embrace change, and enjoy family.

So here’s the deal. I finally got Google Wave! and I want to share it with everyone that I can. I currently have 3 invites to give out as a prize for participating in this contest.

If you don’t know what Google Wave! is then you need to go check it out and read about it here, here, here, and here.

If you don’t think its on of the coolest thing ever then maybe this contest is not for you :).

Anyway, here are the details.

• Click the FOLLOW on Twitter button to the right of this article to follow me on Twitter.
• Click the RSS Subscribe button to the right of this article to subscribe to my RSS.
• Share with your fellow bloggers and friends that they too have a chance to get a Google Wave invite by doing the same. If you refer a friend be sure to comment on this article with who (Twitter Name) you referred in order to get credit.
• The drawing (using random.org) will be held on Sunday 11/29 and the results will be posted here on Monday 11/30. I will contact the winner via DM on Twitter.
• Names for the drawings will be collected from the new users that are following me on Twitter.
• Each new follower on Twitter gets one (1) entry. Every referral that a users refers gets one (1) entry (be sure to comment your Twitter Name if different from your comment name when leaving referrals).

If you have any questions feel free to leave them. If you already have Google Wave! help a fellow blogger out and just click the links

Good luck and pass it on.

The last time I really updated anyone on how life was going in the KV world was all the way back in June. As most of you know when you are dealing with babies 6 months may as well be 25 years. I mean this in a good way.

BabyKV has begun her journey to becoming a human. Sure, she was really always a human but she is morphing out of the crying/pooping/eating machine and turning into a wonderful child with feelings, emotion, love, and compassion.

Spending time with her is becoming less of a chore, and much more rewarding, for both of us. Now before you start calling bad parent on me for calling spending time a chore let me explain. BabyKV as the crying/pooping/eating machine it was a one way street. I showed her my feelings, emotion, love, and compassion towards her and all I got in return was a face gesture which most of the time was due to gas. At the time this was seemed rewarding but my how things have changed now.

BabyKV although not really saying any understandable words or phrases she can comprehend much more then I thought a 1 year old could. She can point out her ears, nose, tummy, head, toes, and feet when asked. She knows how to clap and how to dance (head bobbing is dancing to BabyKV). She will get her BunBun(stuff animal), shoes, socks, ball, and sippy(drink cup) when prompted. She knows who Mama and Daddy are, and is beginning to understand Grammy, Pappy, Grandma, and Poppy.

However, despite all of the things she can do, and all of the words she understands, the most rewarding thing of all, and the one thing that makes all the crying, pooping, diapers, laundry, no date nights, no sleep, no sharp objects ANYWHERE, toys all around the house, food hidden everywhere and car seats/strollers/high chair/random baby gear everywhere is when you ask BabyKV for a hug and for a split second she stops and just snuggles up next to your neck and enjoys the embrace. Then chaos begins once again.

When does it end….

Stairs down 29 Floors

So I know many of you have been seeing me here and there on Dad-blogs and there are a few of you who I believe at one point may have followed because you found me interesting. For those few people, I apologize.

After the last post my life hit hyper drive and has just now …..started to return to normal speed. I will save all the fun details for other posts in the near future. But here is a run down of things that have happened since June.

• Painted the house
• Numerous new projects at work (including contract transitions, new installations, migrations, planning, meetings, more meetings, programming, troubleshooting, etc….)
• Coached a high school Badminton team
• Daughter turned 1
• Started a Baltimore Raven fan site with a friend
• Re-grouted the floor in the kitchen
• Lots of small minor houses fixes and upgrades since buying in April
• Lots of family things including birthdays, weddings.
• New video games, computer games.
• Lots of playing with my daughter and doing the Dad thing

This just touches on the things I have been into. Be sure to keep en eye out on my RSS Feed and subscribe because DaddyKV is back in town, at least until Hyperdrive hits again. Hopefully no time soon.

Tonight at around 830pm my Grandfather passed away. I would like everyone to keep our family in your prayers and to make sure to show those around you that you love them. I am re-posting a Fatherhood Friday from a few months ago about Pa.

We Love you.

Original Post on 4/10/09 —

My Grandpa is one of the greatest people I know. He is kind, compassionate, funny, and faithful to his family, his beliefs, and to God. He is very humble, modest, and kind. He worked hard for everything he has and always provided for his family while putting himself last. He grew up in a poor family in south Baltimore and worked his way from the mail room clerk to the VP of a national insurance company. After putting his time in with that company he retired and started his own insurance agency with his son, which is now on its 25^th year. He lived the American Dream.

He has been married to my grandmother for 50+ years and I have never seen them get upset or yell at each other. They were blessed with three boys, who because of his fathering abilities grew up to be good fathers, husbands and men.

I was blessed with living next to my grandparents from age 2-23. When I was younger Pa would always walk up to the kitchen window and say hi to me in the morning, before he left for work. In the winter he would take his fur lined gloves off and pretend it was a rabbit jumping on the window sill. I would go over and play hours of make believe and dress up with his ties and assortment of hats. He taught me how to play ping pong, billiards, checkers, and chess. I watched just about every classic movie with him including most if not all of the Cary Grant films. There were many nights were Pa’s house was the place to go after dinner to hang out and play.

As I grew older, play time with Pa was less but I still looked up to him and enjoyed the stories he had to tell and hearing about his life experiences. He started teaching my Sunday school class and did so for 10 years. He was a major part of my faith finding and a role model for everyone in our class. He shared regularly about how his faith changed him from a drinking, smoking, foul mouth punk to what I know him to be today. Every Sunday after church my entire family including aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, and siblings would eat Sunday dinner at Grandma’s (12 people total). Sunday dinner always had Pa at the head of the table.
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For those of you that normally read and follow the blog I would like to apologize for my extended period of absence.  I have been SUPER tired and busy both at home, and at work. Its been crazy. The worst part of it all is that its not going to slow up anytime soon. I will be trying to keep up with two articles a week: Tech Tip Tuesday, and Fatherhood Friday. Now for the good part.

Beginning in three days I will have the true test of Fatherhood.

BabyKV is 7.5 months old now and I have been involved for every aspect of her life, but I have never been the lead. MamaKV is always the one to bathe, nurse, and put BabyKV to sleep. I have however been an assistant to all of these tasks.

MamaKV is working on getting her nursing degree (the two degrees she has already must not be enough ) and will be taking a Lab class M-Th 530-930 for the entire month of June. For those of you keeping track that’s 20 days of DaddyKV putting BabyKV to bed ……ALONE. While I am not scared of this and feel very confident I can do it, the thought of not having MamaKV involved or there for backup is a little un-nerving.  Add to that, that BabyKV is just starting to accept a bottle being in her sight none the less in her mouth and it gets SCARY fast.

Putting all that aside, I am actually looking  forward to spending Daddy and Baby time together. Unlike MamaKV I can’t take BabyKV to work therefore I don’t get to see her all day long. In the evenings the few hours we are in the house together are usually filled with chores or other daily tasks that are necessary.

I’m sure Ill have a few good stories…. Stay tuned…..

As many of you know I recently moved. I moved into a townhouse that has about a dozen houses within just a few 100 feet. Within the first few days I had the wireless up and running and started to hook up my laptop to do a little Dad-blogs surfing.

I found about 6 different wireless networks within range and 4 of the 6 were locked down. This is amazing to me. In today’s lawsuit laced society, and software/music piracy rampage I would think people would protect themselves better.

Most people just say brush off no locking it to “I don’t have anything to hide” or “No one in my neighborhood will hack me” even “I don’t care who uses it”. Lets say someone sits in your parking lot or on the street by your house gets on your wireless and downloads illegal programs, pornography, and hacks a few websites while they are at it as well. This will be traced back to YOUR IP address which is in YOUR house which YOU pay for. There are ways to tell if the traffic was indeed from you based on MAC address but even that can be spoofed (duplicated) and blame can be put 100% on you. Fighting this would take time and money which most people would not want to waste either.
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Sunday is Mothers day. For those of you who have not found something for the mothers that are involved in your life you need to go do that soon. Time is ticking and you DO NOT want to be on the other end of that mistake.

Since this last time this wonderful holiday rolled around the KV family has added a tax deductionnew member to the family. MamaKV and I are now parents. This means that MamaKV is now a bonified mother.

I never had my doubts about MamaKV’s mothering skills as she always displayed love, compassion, and responsibility to the dogs and to the children at the daycare she used to work at. However, she took these skills and turned them into to SUPER POWERS once BabyKV was born. There are things she can do now that she would have NEVER done or even considered in the past. It really was and still is an interesting conversion.
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This week is PACKED with Holidays.

Monday was National Star Wars day. I know many of you, like me where unaware of this day. It was only brought to my attention by MamaKV on Monday night. The conversation went something like this:

MamaKV: Today is Star Wars Day.
Me: What !? How do you know you have never seen Star Wars.
MamaKV: May the 4th be with you.
Me: O man …..you are special.
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