Dad’s Workbench: A Dad Blog

To DBA or not DBA?

When my wife was about 7 months pregnant she told me it was important to read and talk with the baby. Apparently even though she was so small that the baby websites compared her to the size of fruit (they would say like “She is now about the size of a grape fruit”) she could hear us. My wife would beg me to talk to her. I felt silly talking to my wife’s stomach but finally I gave in.

4 month old Database Administrator

I am not the kind of guy who likes to chit chat about the weather, what happened today or who did what. My little world is limited to only a hand full of topics. One topic that makes up close to 75% of my world is software development. So needless to say that was the only thing I could possible think of talking about to my daughter. It was the only thing that I felt I had some expertise on.

So the very first thing I taught my daughter was how to setup a web server with Apache and PHP. At the time I couldn’t tell if she was excited or mad because you could feel her kicking around in the womb. Today I got my answer. She must have been excited. The reason I figured that out was, she was cranky and fussy, I took her on my lap and began to read. I read her my text book from my Oracle class. It was about how to be an Oracle administrator. I read to her about installing Oracle and she calmed right down.

I guess I must be in a dream world because I would like to think she will grow up to be a Database Administrator just like her dad. I suppose she is too young to really understand. On the other hand if reading to her will help her grow up smart then I have started the process. Besides all that, learning Oracle has got to be much more exciting than reading about ponies and princesses but I have never been a girl or been a father of a girl before so I will find out in a couple of years when she learns what I am really talking about.

Fourth Year Anniversary

Last week was our fourth year anniversary for my wife and I. This year it was a little different for us as we now have a little baby girl therefore there was no going away for the weekend. This time we took Joy to grandma and grandpa’s house while we went for sushi and then ice cream at Dairy Queen.

4th Year Anniversary Dinner

It felt a little strange leaving her at my parents place. It made me feel kind of old. I was, however, able to put those feelings aside really quick and enjoy a nice evening with my wife. Our date was simple and only a couple of hours but it was good to have sometime to sit and talk about absolutely nothing. No talking about work, what needs to get done or being interrupted by our baby.

This was the first time we left our daughter to go on a date. Now that she is old enough to be with grandma and grandpa for a couple of hours, I think it is time to start dating again. With the busy life of having a new born I had forgotten how good it is to just spend some one on one time with each other. I heard someone once talk about the importance that children see your relationship with your wife and that they see you need time alone.

The sushi restaurants better stock up because here is a list of some of our favorites:

• Tuna Nigri
• Salmon Nigri
• Gyoza
• Red Snapper
• Miso soup
• Yam Tempura

The View Changes

As we experience more and more to life our perspective changes. It is like driving down the highway through the Rocky Mountains just to find out that there are large open prairies and that there are people who actually like living there. The more you drive the more you realize that your living room window is not the full picture of the world.

During our recent camping trip I heard a mother yelling at her child to stop at the stop sign. In fact, over the five days, I heard many fathers and mothers trying to get there children to watch for cars. Some instructing them to stop at the stop sign, some telling them to check for cars before crossing the road and not after, and other parents nearly having a heart attack trying to chase down their children. They all had different ways of desperately trying to get the point across.

Before I became a parent I would have thought to myself “Man, can’t they teach there kids to obey them?”. It is not that I think that teaching obedience is any less important now but I find myself rather observing how differently each parent tries to get their child’s attention. It is also interesting to find how every child requires different methods of teaching.

Everyday I find that I am realizing more and more that there isn’t just one method of teaching a child. Every child is a person who is very unique from any other child or adult. Successfully teaching a child can only come by understand, loving and caring for them not by just following a book, method or formula.