Ryan James O'Sullivan

Merry Christmas to all!

Typically busy Christmas Day here in O’Sullivan land. I’ll have full loot links, etc tomorrow

Yesterday we celebrated Paige’s 2nd birthday! It is staggering to look back and realize that Paige has been a part of our lives now for two years. What is more disorienting is it is hard to remember a time when Paige wasn’t a part of my life; she’s become such a core part of our day to day lives I couldn’t imagine a life without her.

The past year has been one full of firsts; there were probably less firsts pound for pound when compared to the first year of her life but the firsts of the second year of a child’s life feel much more definitive: Walking, talking, feats of surprising intelligence and seeming day to day more like a little person and not our little baby.

The most profound change in life with Paige this year has been a shift in the nature of our relationship.  As a baby Paige viewed Tammy and I as providers (obviously) but as she’s gotten older emotional attachment and needs have grown.  There is nothing in life more rewarding then coming home from a long day at the office and having Paige waiting at the top of the stairs yelling at the top of her lungs “DADDY DADDY DADDY… DADDYYYYYYYYYYYY I LOVE YOU DADDY”.

I cannot wait to see what this year will bring…

I know what you are thinking – after two months of neglecting this blog I have the nerve to open with a bitch fest about the weather?  Stick with me…

The summer has come and gone and in many ways it feels like it was in reality a series of false starts.  Yes there is the obvious weather let down with this summer (by and large if you like warm weather and you live in the north east region of North America you are a little disappointed with what we got this year) but the whole thing just felt “off” outside of that.

For me since time immemorial summer has looked like this – Monday to Friday go to work.  Friday evening get in the car drive up north.  Saturday to Sunday family heavy days often fully planned with shit.to.do. up north.  Sunday afternoon get in the car drive home.  Do laundry.  Bat clean up on the Tivo.  Go to bed.  This year I just wasn’t feelin’ it.  I love going up north and I love spending time with my parents and grandparents but this year it just felt like I was going through the motions.

Mid summer I posted about the weekend we spent in the city and it is probably my favorite memory of this summer.  That was one of the few times I can recall in recent years where I’ve really controlled the agenda for a summer weekend and did something different.  The end result was a great weekend that Tammy, Paige and I really enjoyed together.

So for me, this summer was about hitting some sort of summer-rock-bottom.  I look back and I cannot recall much at all.  Really only my ATV trip (which was another highlight) and that weekend in the city really stick out… the rest is a bit of a haze.  There are many reasons for it I imagine; I’ve been insanely busy at work and I’ve been working hard to focus on Paige and Tammy outside of office hours – I haven’t had much left in the tank after that.

All I know is next year it is time to mix it up a bit.  There is a possibility we’ll be having a baby late spring/early summer (we are planning for it) so that might mix it up on its own but it is time for Tammy and I to start planning our own activities and not spending so much time up north.

This weekend the weather forecast was looking rather craptastic and my sister Amanda is moments away from popping out my Nephew so we decided to stay in the city for the weekend  At the start of the day it was looking like any other weekend in the city: Laze around, clear out the TiVo, commit random acts of computing and get some time in the backyard or park across the street for Paige.

The thought of another weekend lost to routine was too much to bare and I suggested we grab a nice dinner downtown and maybe go for a walk along the waterfront.  We decided to hit up The Old Spaghetti Factory and end our evening taking a walk along the boardwalk at Woodbine Beach.

The Spaghetti Factory was great as always.  I decided since we were on a bit of an adventure I would order something different; I ended up going with the Spicy Chorizo Sausage Penne and I was not disappointed.  Tammy had the boring ol’ Spaghetti with Meat Sauce.  When it came time to get the parmesan cheese on her spaghetti however things got interesting:

That’s right… the lid popped off the dispenser!  After some laughter a new serving was quickly delivered.

You never know how Paige is going to handle a new restaurant and she loved it too.  Her favorite item was the minestrone soup.

It was a great meal and we had a lot of fun there.  After dinner we were off to the beach

My usual waterfront hang out in Toronto is usually a bit further to the west in Marilyn Bell park.  My years working at Exhibition Place, particularly during the CNE were made a little more sane when I could take a relaxing hour or two and sit and watch the boats go by.

So this was my first time in “the beaches” proper (I refuse to call it The Beach) probably since my grade school days.  I must admit that I was impressed.  There were signs of the ongoing city workers strike (the beach clearly hadn’t been cleaned in a bit so there was some obvious litter but it was very minimal in a city that hasn’t seen garbage clean up in nearly three weeks) but all and all it a was a beautiful place to spend the evening.

Paige certainly had a lot of fun

As someone who spends as much time as possible in the summer in cottage country I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by just how much Toronto had to offer.  It is very easy to forget and take for granted all the stuff there is to do in your back yard – I know for sure I won’t let another weekend in the city go by without considering my options for what we can do as a family to make things more interesting.

And speaking of interesting – a funny story before I conclude.  We decided to leave our stroller by a park bench while we all sat out by the water.  We had been very passively keeping our eye on it and just as we were starting to leave it vanished!  We quickly scanned the board walk and saw our stroller being pushed away by a group of people!  I’ve never seen my asthmatic wife run so hard in my life.  She bolted and started hollering at the people and in the end managed to get our stroller back.  Their explanation? “We thought someone left it”.  Uh huh.  So another thing to remember if you do a weekend in the city – you are still in the city and need to be mindful of that

I wouldn’t have changed a thing – it was a perfect evening.

For a full look at pictures from the day check out my related flickr photoset here.

*This was supposed to publish on December 28th – stupid Publish On function didn’t work*

I took last week off of work and as I write this I’m mentally preparing for the return to work and reflecting on the week and the great Christmas we had with the family this past week.

I decided to take the Christmas week off for two reasons: The first is that I’ve been working in the retail industry now for a few years and taking time off at Christmas in the past was completely out of the question – it just felt good to do it because now I’m so deep in the business process end of things I was able to escape for a few days. Second we are waiting for Paige’s health care provider to start (we had to wait until January 5th) and I needed to take a turn watching her (thanks to my grandparents and parents for also taking some time to watch Paige!).

Needless to say starting the vacation off by spending more time with Paige was awesome. I get very little time alone with just Paige and I together because Tammy is usually around. So the opportunity for some one on one bonding time was fantastic. Spending time with Paige really made me step back and realize what is important in life. Seeing her day by day growth up close and personal, not missing a thing was something that was worth all the vacation days in the world.

The mid to later portion of the week was spent in the family craziness of Christmas. I’ve wrote in past years in great detail about our many traditions that start with dinner on Christmas Eve at my grand parents place and go right on through to the Saturday that follows Christmas at my parents place for a take out food night (Swiss Chalet and Chinese this year – I know an odd tradition, but a goody).

Christmas itself was great. Tammy and I held back on getting gifts for ourselves this year to focus on getting gifts for Paige – we really spoiled her. Paige was also spoiled by both my parents and grandparents. She did well. My parents and grandparents also provided the ol’ hook up to Tammy and I as well! This is what our living room looked like after we got home and got all the presents in the house:

Gift highlights for me: Exercise bike (I need to get back in to shape and finish up the last mile of my knee rehab), Tivo (which Tammy and I picked up using gift cards Jessica got us!), Godfather DVD box set + Wire seasons = TV win, and a bunch more goodies.

We had a great Christmas and the time we spent together as a family was great. This was Paige’s first real Christmas (she was weeks old last time around) and she really had a blast this year (although by the time Christmas day with all its tradition and busyness was over she was ready to crash). I know each and every Christmas with Paige going forward will be more and more interesting and fun but this was for sure a great start – especially starting the week off with her.

I look forward to many more…

I just wanted to put up a quick Happy Holidays to everyone before I get knee deep in family over the next few days.

Be safe and be sure to enjoy the time with your family.

My Christmas this year can be summed up very easily:

Paige and I!

And as a bonus, look at how much she’s grown since last year:

Paige and I!

We’ve been waiting to get settled with the baby before having Tammy’s mother come up here to meet the baby and all that. Tammy has been having a rough couple of days as the baby has gotten into a routine of not sleeping and today Tammy and I discussed it and we think it’ll be nice to have her mother here to help and take some of the stress off of Tammy.

It’ll be nice to have some help to be able to actually do the 101 things that need to be done around here. It will be a little odd to not have full privacy (I’m sitting here in my boxers with my shirt unbuttoned at the moment – go ahead and let that image sink in) in the house but it’ll be interesting and I think we’ll have fun showing off the baby and a little bit of the city to Tammy’s mom.

So as of Sunday the mother in law is in town!

This obviously was a big year for me. I had a great year at work hitting a few great career milestones and of course Paige entered my life. Looking back on the year I’d have to say this is probably (even if you put aside the baby) the best year Tammy and I have had married, despite some health issues with Tammy, etc.

Paige entering our lives was obviously huge. She’s a almost 5 weeks old now and already she has had a profound impact on who I am as a person and how I live my life. I think the thing I look forward to most in 2008 is the thing that made 2007 so great – Getting to know this wonderful addition to my life and growing as a person because of it.

For 2007 I had some fairly simple goals:

• Pay down my debts
  This one is going fairly well. I had large consolidation loan with my bank that is now nearing the 1500 dollar mark which is just fantastic. My credit card has managed to stay under 500 dollars and my retail cards are at an all time low.
• Have A Baby
  This was a goal that appeared on both Tammy’s and my goal lists for the last 2 or so years. This dream finally came true
• Move Towards Process Improvement at Work
  Back in the fall after some interesting job interviews and tough days I finally managed to get the position I’ve been working for since I moved to the corporate offices at Indigo – Process Improvement!
• Move Into A Town House
  Managed to knock this one out by January. Our previous apartment wasn’t bad (ish) but we really wanted to get into a house before the baby came… and we did it.
• Hit End Game In An MMO
  I hit level cap in EQ2 this year and have done plenty of raiding. Check and check

 Goals that didn’t get accomplished:

• Getting my weight back down to my pre knee injury levels
• Eliminating all debts (paid down was the achievable – eliminating was the high hope)
• Finding a project and sticking with it

For 2008 I have some goals that I really hope I will accomplish:

• Being the best father I can be to Paige
• Being the best husband I can be to Tammy
• Getting back down to my pre knee injury weight
• Eliminating all debt by the end of the year (this year I think we’ll do it… we are in a really good position)
• Starting with my annual bonus start a new fund for a down payment for a house
• Double my RRSP (retirement) contributions as soon as possible
• Take my new planned project from idea to launch… I’ll have more on this in a few weeks, I can’t wait to share what I’ve done so far I really love it (its ATV and internet related – some of you have seen it)
• Hitting level 70 in World of Warcraft

I can only hope that 2008 is half as good as 2007, a year that really gave me more then I ever could have hoped for.

In terms of my best list for 2007:

• Best books read: The Testament of Gideon Mack, American Gods, Shadow of the Wind and The God Delusion
• Best games played: Everquest 2 (both expansions this past year were amazing), The Orange Box, and BF 2142
• Best music: One Republic – fantastic album from beginning to end

Good bye 2007, bring on ’08.

On November 28th at 12:58am Paige Fae O’Sullivan entered the world! She was a touch premature (two weeks) weighing in at 5 pounds and 13 ounces. She is very small (and precious) and she’s been wonderful from the moment she entered the world!

I came home from work with some KFC and Tammy informed me “I think I am having contractions and I haven’t felt the baby all day”. We decided to head to the hospital and get things looked at. We totally thought we’d be checking out the baby and making sure she was ok. Ten minutes there and the nurse had us setup in a delivery room.

The labour lasted a total of 8 hours (it started shortly after 4pm (we made it to the hospital some time after 8)) and the pushing only took 7 1/2 times lasting a total of 15 minutes. It was a relatively quick labour and both Tammy and I know it could have been a lot more difficult! So we are very happy with how things came out.

Tammy was in the hospital for a little over 36 hours and is home and recovering very well. Everyone is happy and healthy and we are starting the process of adjusting to our new life.

In the weeks leading up to the birth a thousand scenarios of what life will be like with the baby run through your head and you really think you know how its going to be. Well it really is impossible to imagine how life will be. The reality is: thoughts of the bad (the things you’ll lose, etc) are way overstated and thoughts of the good (how wonderful life with the baby will be, etc) don’t even come close to the reality.

Oddly enough as well I’m not nearly as tired as I thought I’d be despite getting next to no sleep…

Paige is a wonderful addition and I’ll have lots more to say in the coming weeks as we get adjusted to our new life with baby. I’m off work for the next while so I’ll keep everyone up to date on whats going on with baby. First up tomorrow is our first doctors appointment!!!

So last Sunday my mother, grand mother and aunt (and I’m sure others in my family) worked their tail off to throw a baby shower for Tammy and it was awesome! Just over 20 people showed up (an impressive feat being that Tammy doesn’t know many people here!) and all accounts are that people had an awesome time!

I just wanted to thank everyone who came and gave us so many wonderful presents! Paige will be getting a great start thanks to all of you.

I want to especially thank my family who did such a wonderful job putting together a great party and making sure Paige got all the essentials she needs… It was a wonderful day and we are very lucky to have such a wonderful family.