Swartzy Cocpa

Sorry.

Life got in the way of adding more great content to this blog. It’s been almost three years since I last wrote you. That means Swartzy Jr. will be 3 years old in about three weeks.

How time flies.

In fact, little Swartzina was born at the end of July and is doing great. So, yes, Mrs. Swartzy and I have two young together, and life has never been more stressful.

I can’t wait until their older and out of the house so I can have ONE minute of free time to do as I please. Raising children is a full-time job, to be sure.

Junior is a lot of fun. He is also a major pain in the ass at times.

Terrible 2s? Hell yes!

He doesn’t listen. He wants to do everything himself. He never wants to go to bed for his nap during the afternoon and for the longer sleep at night.

Although it’s usually a struggle at bedtime, he has shown sign of improvements. Last week, I told him stories I made up on the fly to keep him interested and laying down in bed. Worked like a charm.

I tried the same tactic just tonight. No dice.

I’m ready to pull my hair out.

For as much of a hassle young children are, they make me smile. They make me happy. I’m glad we have them. I feel fortunate we have them.

Sure, before kids our lives were filled with summer barbecues playing bean bag games in the backyard, staying up to all hours of the night drinking and carousing, and swearing and having sex whenever and wherever we pleased.

A lot of fun, indeed. But no where near the fulfillment the kiddos provide.

Young Swartzy was one of the Toy Story 4 characters for Halloween. This year was the first he went out to trick-or-treat, and he had a lot of fun. So did we. Swartzina was a little lamb by the way.

We’re looking forward to his birthday and another Christmas. We drove around town with Swartzy looking at holiday decorations and lights last year. I’ll image we’ll do the same this December.

Swartzy is still afraid of Santa Claus, but he is overjoyed when the fat bastard leaves him boatloads of toys and treats on Christmas morning. He might just get a stocking full of coal this year or a gift certificate for Gilbert stucco repair.

I doubt we’ll have a third Swartz baby. Two feels like a handful. The goods is it sure feels like the terrible 2s will be easier with Swarzina. She’s a good girl. But maybe that’s just wishful thinking.

Anyway, it’s great to be back here writing. Maybe I’ll give an update before the kids head off to college.

Maybe not.

Update!

Mrs. Swartzy, much to our happiness, has passed the 37-week mark of her pregnancy without giving birth to Swartzy Jr.

If you follow along with the blog, you will recall that we were worried that Swartzy Jr. would come too early since Mrs. Swartzy was told at her last doctor’s appointment that she was three centimeters dilated.

Her next appointment is in two days. Her hope was to make it at least to that date before giving labor. Fingers crossed.

Originally I was startled by the news that Swartzy Jr. was coming early. Now I’m really looking forward to it. While I was feeling him move around in Mrs. Swartzy’s stomach last night, I wished that I could see him and hold him in my arms. If I’m lucky, my wish will come true soon.

In the meantime, we’ll continue to go back and forth with names. The other night Mrs. Swartzy was bringing up new names we’ve never even discussed before. That frustrated me. I thought we had a final three.

Sorry Swartzy Jr. Maybe we’ll just call you “Baby Cakes”.

While walking the dogs tonight, I noticed that a few houses already had Christmas decorations and lights out. I also saw a garage with a new epoxy floor installed by this local company: epoxyitall.com.

Some radio stations have even started playing holiday music.

While it seems way too early for that kind of stuff, it got me thinking about having family holidays with our son. That made me happy.

Since I live a couple hours from my parents and my family, I unfortunately miss out on holidays with them. That has been a difficult transition for me the last couple years. I think of a lot holiday memories we shared growing up and it makes me sad about not spending those days with them.

I suppose change is a part of life we must deal with. And here’s comes another change with new family holiday traditions and the gift of Swartzy Jr.

It’s early on a Sunday morning and Mrs. Swartzy is telling me she might have had a contraction last night – but nothing constant. We still have a few days to go for her to get to 37 weeks pregnant.

As relatively young people, we don’t really have lives outside of home and work. I’m writing very early on a Sunday morning because we went to bed early on a Saturday night. That’s usually the case. We go to bed the same time and get up the same time, whether it’s a work day or weekend.

I’m very introverted and really enjoy home time. Mrs. Swartzy likes to be out and about, but isn’t fond of extended social interactions.

I’m satisfied with our social lives – however limited they may be. To be honest, I get enough social interaction at work each day that I usually come home exhausted.

What I’m getting at is this should bode well for us as parents. There isn’t a lot that will take us away from Swartzy Jr. and we’ll have a lot of home time with him. That’s a good thing, since we both work and will be away from him during the day.

I think we’ll be good parents. I know Mrs. Swartzy will be a good mother. If you recall, she gets shit done. In addition to that, she is very meticulous. She does things the right way. She is a great role model. She is caring and compassionate.

I am lucky to have her, and Swartzy Jr. will be lucky to have her.

Me? I think I’ll be okay. For one, Mrs. Swartzy will keep me in line. She’ll make sure I’m a good father.

But I’m driven to be a good father on my own. I don’t know a lot about being a father, a mentor, a parent, but I’m looking forward to learning. I’m looking forward to raising Swartzy Jr. from a baby, to a boy and finally a young man.

Mrs. Swartzy and I will both have high expectations of Swartzy Jr. because we have high expectations for ourselves as parents. It is incumbent upon us to help him reach his goals and our goals for him.

I don’t care what he wants to be in life. He can work for movers in Buffalo, NY or be a garbage man in Erie, Pa. or a doctor in Cleveland, Ohio. Continue reading Being a good parent

With Swartzy Jr. now coming much sooner than expected, the pressure is on to choose a name for him.

I thought that this would be the easy part. It’s been the hardest. Go figure.

Over time I’ve learned to embrace my own name. If anything it is unique.

Swartz Cocpa.

Swartzy Cocpa to my closest friends. Yes, that includes you.

When my dad was growing up, there was a hardware store around the corner from the family home called Swartz Hardware. He and my grandpa spent a lot of time in that store gathering tools and supplies for home do-it-yourself projects. They spent much more time working together on those projects.

My dad has always been fond of those memories and times working with his father. To always remind him of those memories and times, he named me after a family-owned hardware store that has been out of business for years.

I don’t hold it against him. I now love the name because of the meaning. It’s me.

In case you were wondering about my last name, Cocpa isn’t really my last name. It’s a shortened version of a long Italian surname. Hey, I can’t reveal everything here. I don’t want my identity stolen! Continue reading What’s in a name?

A few weeks ago when I was out of town for work, Mrs. Swartzy texted something she had read about the partner massaging the perineum during the final months of pregnancy.

Perineum? I knew I had heard that word somewhere before. I flipped through the files of my memory bank. Perineum?

Perineum?

Oh, perineum?

I had learned the word at an all-day child birth class me and Mrs. Swartzy attended a few weeks earlier. It is the area between the anus and the vagina. Some have called it the taint.

I paused in terror. I don’t think I could give a taint massage, I thought to myself.

Courageously, I texted back: “Would you like me to do that?”

I waited in horror. I began sweating.

Mrs. Swartzy replied: “I think I’d be too embarrassed.”

Thank you Jesus!

Not that I wouldn’t do that for Mrs. Swartzy. It would be challenging, awkward, and uncomfortable. But I could pull it off if I had to.

I think. Continue reading Massage your what?