Farmers market, t-shirts, Natalia Malo, and Parent emotions

Tonight was the weekly Farmers Market in my little town, and we always go up and walk around with the kids.  Alex, our son, loves going in the large, air filled, bouncing room with attached slide, which tonight was a giant horse.  We spent quite a while in there together, bouncing around, climbing up the stairs and sailing down the steep slide.  After that we made our usual rounds uptown, and saw several people that we knew.

I want to tell you that I wore my brand-new (Brown) eagle logo, Dad For Life shirt tonight, and I had 2 ladies and 1 gentleman stop me and compliment me on the shirt.  It was the “Dad for Life” slogan, and the fact that I was pushing our stroller that caught their eye.  One of the women called a friend of hers over to look at my “great” shirt.  The man stopped me later and said, referring to my shirt, ”That’s so true.  Even when your kids are grown up like mine, you never stop being a Dad.”  I thought that was a successful debut of the new shirt design!  Get yours at the www.dadsworld.com store.  They are the coolest.

While uptown, we stopped and listened to an amazing little 13 year old girl who regularly plays the guitar, keyboard and sings on the stage they have set up every week.  Her name is Natalia Malo, and she is fantastic.  I spoke briefly with her ever-present Dad, and complimented him on his daughters talent.  She has her own website which I encourage you to visit: www.myspace.com/nataliamalo  She writes her own songs, sings them, plays the instruments… everything.  She is dynamite.  Some of her songs are available to listen to at her website, so check them out. 

 Here is her own bio directly off of her site: Natalia Malo was born in Portland, Oregon. She has written over 45 songs and has been playing the guitar for almost 4 years. You can hear a few of Natalias songs on the home page. Natalia was invited to come down to Los Angeles, California for many gigs and recording opportunities. She started out when she was about 7 in the arts. She started dancing at 7 with Maralees Dancers. When she was 9 she saw a performer at the open mic that her parents ran. Elke Robitaille. Natalias parents, Katalin and Tom asked Elke if she would give Natalia guitar lessons. Elke did and Natalia, 13, took off from there.

After listening to Natalia, we ate dinner at the local sports restaurant, Lil’ Cooperstown and enjoyed the evening.  It’s neat to see a family support their young daughter and help her develop her innate talents.

After we got home and put the kids to bed, my wife and I watched the Biggest Loser, which we DVR so we can watch after the kids are in bed.  Tonights episode really struck me.  2 of the couples won care packages from their families back at home who they hadn’t had contact with for 2 1/2 months.  It was very emotional listening to the 1st couples’ recordings from their young kids.  My wife and I both cried, imagining that it was our son who we hadn’t seen in 2 months and he was talking to us, telling us he loved us and missed us.  I can tell you from personal experience, having kids opens up a whole new world of emotion that if you don’t have kids, you don’t even know exists.

The personal experience I am referring to is when I left home after just 6 months of marriage to travel on the road with a Sales Training company.  I headed up the road team for a famous Personal Development speaker, and we traveled all over the country, living in different major cities for 3-4 months at a time.  The first time I left, I went to Los Angeles and didn’t see my wife for 73 days.  Most of the next 1 1/2 years I saw my wife only 1 week out of every 2-3 months.  I know what it’s like to be away from your loved ones for extended periods of time.  But I will tell you this… as hard as that was, and believe me plenty of tears fell and there was tremendous heartache, it is insignificant compared to the emotion of even imagining leaving my young children.  After having kids, I look back on that and think, “Yeah, it was tough, but we were both adults and we knew what the sacrifice was.”  If I imagine myself leaving for 2-3 months now, with a 2 year old son and a 6 week old daughter, the emotions are dramatically more intense.  Your child is so dependent on you, so innocent and pure.  I can’t describe with words what my children mean to me.  If you have children of your own, you know what I’m talking about.  If you don’t have children, you won’t really get it.

Your kids change your life forever.  I take my role as a Dad very seriously, and truly believe that a Dad is for life.  I hope you do too.

Tags: , biggest loser, dad, dadsworld, farmers market, marriage, mom, natalia malo, T-shirts, west linn, willamette