I know there's actually a ton of stuff to talk about, but since I'm pressed on time and a few hours ago, I leaned back against the chair and a soft little "pop" happened, and now my back's a little messed up. Earlier this evening I had been carrying Zoe on my back on a baby backpack for about an hour, maybe a little longer. I had to since Alex was running around the playground being Adventure Boy.

Well, I am practicing my "LASER-BEAM FOCUS" skills, whereby I adopt the advice that a lot of movie-stars and directors seem to have driving their career. You always hear about people talking about a certain actor, having that drive and focus to succeed and do nothing else. So I'm trying that for a while. The Feature Story I have in my mind is slowly materializing more and more, and the characters are becoming more concrete. I've started a private blog of script notes, story ideas, character stuff, just to get it down on paper or some kind of notation. The basic plot is already in place, but I just want to spend a little more time on the backstory, so that there's a gravity to what motivates them, and why they do certain things. I'm getting very very excited.

The kids are well, tonight it was just me and the kids hanging out at the park with my little mentioned, much older stepdaughter and my stepgrandkids, Joseph and Jane. They really look up to me in some odd way, like I'm a cool dude with a funny name. Jane likes to drag out my name and draw my attention to every single thing she does. I suppose there's worse things in the world. Well, more on Alex and Zoe a little later. Gotta take some weight off my back now.

Happy Mother's Day!

To honor the two most important women in my life, I'll say a little something about each of them. First...

Me Mum!

Of course, it's hard to talk about Mother's Day without mentioning the person who gave me life, and put up with so much while raising two boys by herself. She's had to make some pretty major decisions in her life, and they were mostly centered around my brother and I. I mean, to move to America was a huge sacrifice for her, something that she did for us entirely. She gave up an apartment that was paid for, left all her immediate family, gave up her tutoring job, all because my brother and I weren't getting good enough grades to guarantee ourselves a better future. There was just absolutely nothing in it for her, but she just wanted something better for her kids. She is one of the reasons why the words "Mother" and "Sacrifice" are so intertwined.

She's always stepped in to help us financially, even though we technically bring in more money than her. She's also always put herself in front of others - prime example being that she would pick out a cheap shirt at Target, ponder on the colors, and end up not paying the $7.99 for it because she doesn't think she "needs" it, but she'll pony up money in a flash to help me, or buy the kids some clothes, or just take care of whatever. Selflessness is a virtue she offers with no hesitation.

I attribute all my best qualities to her, and the reason why I can be a nice guy is because I learnt it from her. My mother is just one of the nicest people you could meet, so much so that my friend in high school had often wished she'd adopt him, though I would beg to differ. Now all I can offer her are my kids, and she's been the proudest grandma in the world ever since Alex was born. I've said it before, but seeing her play and interact with her grandkids offers me a window into my own childhood. If she even loved me a fraction of how she loves Alex and Zoe, then I must've been the luckiest kid ever.

Me Wife!

Having a baby any time in your life is difficult, but having two babies in two years in your fourties? Man, you've got to be some kind of Wonder Woman... Which is my wife. I have sealed her doom in making her a mother till she's well into her sixties, and she's getting the son she never had, and the daughter who's a spitfire. I have reverted her life about 20 years, and am depriving her of the freedom that fourty-something year old parents should have when their kids get older and move out. She should be watching lots of plays and drinking wine and taking vacations now. Instead, she's juggling two babies and changing diapers and being screamed at 7 days a week... and she still loves these kids to no end.

She tries to give them all the attention that these kids deserve, giving up her TV time and scheduling her days around activities for them. She worries about their well being all the time. She used to have to check in on Alex at night to see if he was okay. She gives up her lunches to our babies in favor of eating it herself, and you can just see how smitten she is when she's with the babies. She just loves the Alex and the Z-bear so tremendously much.

The kids tend to come to me and my wife thinks they see me as the "fun" parent, but I'm really not. She's the one who takes them to parks, gives them different foods, and plays with them all day. I do it for an hour or two and I'm itching to do something else, due to my lack of attention. She's the one who sings, dances, and wrestles with them constantly. So, in a way, I'm like the fun candy bar, but my wife's the chicken dinner. I'm ultimately useless compared to my wife. The kids can live off me for like two days tops, and then their IQ would start dipping and their diets would get just atrocious. They would dress badly and smell accordingly. So these kids are lucky to have such a cool mother.

I seem to think so.

Happy mother's day!