Hi,
      Im creating this as a daily journal to chronicle my son Cameron's  growth from now ( 4.5 years ) to adulthood. I should've done this from the day my wife and I were blessed with his arrival but better late than never. I'll just fill it with the day to day banality of raising a child which Im sure will be of interest to only myself and my wife but maybe one day I can give it to him and we can share the memories of what I hope is a happy childhood for him. I got married relatively late in life at age 37 and didn't have him until age 43. My 48th birthday is coming next month so looking at the long view of things its more than likely I won't be around until he reaches my age unfortunately but Im going to try and cram as much as I can in the time Im allotted with him. I didn't have the best childhood myself . Im the youngest of 4 , my own father died in 1974 at the young age of 44 when I was 8 years old ( a big fuck you to cancer) . We were poor by any standard, lived on welfare, food stamps. I never really got to know my Dad . I don't know how that has affected me if it has at all but I certainly don't want my son to go through his life not knowing me so hopefully my thoughts on his day to day life as a child will one day give him some insight into me should I met an earlier than intended fate.  So here we go. Today is Wednesday July 23, 2014. I am off work today so its always fun when I get the chance to be here during the mornings when Cam first wakes up. I like seeing him start his day which usually has him heading straight into our bedroom to lay in bed with my wife Kelly and "watch some shows" (his words for cartoons.) Today he did just that and then he came downstairs where i was to hang out with me a bit. We played Doc McStuffins Operation then I got him dressed to take him out for a bike ride. Just a couple weeks ago he started riding his big boy bike, a 2 wheeler with training wheels that he likes to ride around the block everyday. He's improved a lot in a short time, he was half a block ahead of me most of the time. Thankfully he's always been a pretty good listener and he adheres to the ground rules pretty well, approaching driveways and corners very slowly looking for cars . We finished that up and went back inside. Kelly is off for the summer from her teaching job and earlier in the week she had decided to take a trip to see Nana in downstate Normal , Illinois. So the rest of the morning was spent getting packed in preparation for the 2 hour ride. Her and Cam left around 2pm so Im missing them both right now. They will return on Saturday so Im playing bachelor for the rest of the week and caretaker for our dog, Daisy until they come back. So thats it for now, more to report in a couple days. Goodnight Cam, Daddy loves and misses you. XXXOOO