I think this is the first year that I have truly felt my age. Whether it be having a tough time accepting that I am 39 or just having aches and pains associated with getting older (wrist issue, shoulder trouble, back soreness, hip flexor). Up until this year, I would have considered myself a young guy, but now? Nah, I am just a guy. No longer young. One of those nice presents from kids, right?
Favorite Song
It gets harder each year to pick a favorite song. I just do not end up listening to that much new stuff. I definitely liked the new stuff from Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers, but if I am totally being honest, my favorite songs this year have been from Postmodern Jukebox. Here is a fantastic cover they did of Florence and the Machine’s “Dog Days Are Over.” I probably jam out to something from PMJ at least once a day.
Favorite Television Show
This one is tough because there have been some great shows this year. Barry, Succession, Watchmen, Stranger Things, Mindhunter, Chernobyl, Veep, The Good Place, and on I could probably go. This is Us, Modern Family, and The Rookie are also shows that I totally loved this year. Despite all the complaints, I still loved Game of Thrones. But, I think the best show and by far my favorite, The Mandalorian. I look forward to Fridays now just so I can see the adventures of Mando and Baby Yoda.
Favorite Movie
I think this one is pretty easy. Avengers: Endgame was my favorite movie of the year. There were a bunch of other movies I enjoyed (granted I did not see nearly as many as I would have liked), but Endgame was my favorite. I have watched it a few times now and it was definitely the perfect ending to the whole Infinity Stone Saga or whatever they are calling it.
Favorite Book
I enjoyed many books this year, I loved the Bryce O’Connor books and would probably have picked them this year if it were not for a book that I read and finished back in January: Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin. I think I referenced that book at least fifty times when talking about GOT with people.
Favorite Sports Moment
The Washington Nationals winning the World Series was pretty cool. Especially the way it all went down. I loved seeing Stephen Strasburg win the World Series MVP and his dominant performance.
Favorite Podcast
I listen to two politics podcasts: FiveThirtyEight’s Politics Podcast and Pod Save America. I look forward to each one every week and whenever something happens, I check to see if either of them have an emergency podcast to discuss the situation. I cannot decide which one is my favorite, they are both excellent.
Favorite Fantasy Sports Team
I did not win any fantasy sports this year. However, I decided to try my hand at a college football pick ’em against the spread on Yahoo. I joined a few groups and did fairly well. Overall, I was ranked #222 with 196 points. That is out of many thousands of people. I also joined two groups, PSU Fans and Fans from PA. I was 15th and 17th respectively. Pretty cool.
Favorite House Thing
Since we bought our new house and started doing work on things, we have naturally purchased a ton of stuff. I decided as we were upgrading things that it was time to embrace the smart technology. My favorite thing has been the smart outlets and smart bulbs I purchased. So far just the living room, but it is awesome! I connected the lamp and the Christmas tree to the outlets, created a group to turn them on/off. The bulbs are in the overhead light, connected to a bigger group of all living room lights. It is so convenient.
Favorite Kid Show
I watch plenty of kid stuff. Payton has plenty of favorite shows. She still loves Puppy Dog Pals, Vampirina, and Lion Guard. She also started watching other stuff like Daniel Tiger and Peppa Pig. My favorite is probably…just kidding, they are all decent, but the best thing is having a playroom where Payton can watch them on her own. Also, my favorite thing is when she comes to me and says “Daddy, can I watch football with you?”
Favorite Payton Moment
There were plenty of awesome moments this year with Payton. Her vocabulary is constantly expanding and just the way she talks evolves every day. She does funny little things like singing songs from Frozen and having her own little dance (which is really just running around the house) or wanting to fight with me (usually just means climbing on my back or maybe punching me in the chest–don’t worry people, she knows she is only allowed to fight me). However, the best moment was when she became potty trained.
We started the process in the summer and it did not start off well. We tried a potty watch, which had some success, she liked wearing it (she thought she was cool with a watch like Aunt Kayla and Uncle Adam–they both have Apple Watches). And yet, for the longest time she would just poop her pants. It was frustrating and gross. The pee was less gross, but smelled awful. Lindsey and I seriously thought it might never get better.
And then…it did. One day she started saying she had to go potty. We would take her. She had less and less accidents. She has had an accident here and there since that point, but they have been very rare (and honestly, they are usually our fault…for example, the other day I was feeding Logan a bottle and Payton said she had to go potty, I asked if she could hold it and she said yes. She then went in the bathroom and tried to go herself, but did not make it. She was so sad and apologetic. It made me sad!).
The whole thing reminded me of Samson. When we were trying to housebreak him, nothing seemed to work. Then one day he just started going to the door when he had to go. If we ever got another dog, we would have no clue how to do it. And this is how it will be when we potty train Logan, no freakin’ clue what actually worked.
Favorite Logan Moment
Being born was a pretty great moment. Or the fact that he was okay after a few minor health scares. However, the greatest moment came when he started sleeping more. I will not lie, things were not going well those first few months. He woke up all the time, did not want to sleep, could not seem to get into a routine. He cried so much. Logan tested my patience in every way possible (and I will not lie, I failed many times…there were plenty of times where I had to put him down and just walk away because I knew I was getting frustrated). Not only that, but the constant stress from him was wearing on all of us (add that with little miss poopy pants from up above)…Lindsey and I were fighting more (okay, maybe I was just snapping and lashing out more, Lindsey does not fight, she is way too nice, I do not deserve her). I probably consumed more Aleve this year then in the previous decade combined.
And guess what? It got better. He sleeps through the night (for the most part). He is different than Payton though. She would just fall asleep after you put her in the crib, whereas Logan cries for a bit, but then falls asleep. He is now able to stand with some assistance and he crawls all over the place. Totally a different child than his sister. Payton never really crawled around the house. Logan will go everywhere and wants to get into everything. I always joked that the baby-proofing stuff was dumb with Payton because she never tried to get into that stuff. Logan? Yeah, if you put him down, he will crawl to the kitchen and try to get into the cupboard under the sink, where all the chemicals are located. He does it all the time.
Favorite Moment
This is a weird one. When Logan was born, Lindsey’s mom brought Payton over to the hospital to visit. She did not really want anything to do with Logan. Instead, she wants to run in and out of the room. So I go with her and we end up down a hallway by the room looking out the window. We spent a long time of her leaning against the window identifying cars by their colors. I was exhausted from the lack of sleep (not cool that the hospital no longer takes the baby to allow the parents some time to sleep, like they did with Payton) and yet here was my daughter, totally needing someone to reaffirm that life was going to continue on as it had. Obviously she could not express that she was scared that Logan would change our family dynamic, that maybe her mommy and daddy would love her less than before. Who knows what goes through the mind of two year old. That was one of those moments that really hammered into my head (and heart) how much I love my children. Anyways, I try every day to show Payton and Logan how much I love them, even when I have to yell at them for being bad (not so much Logan, he tends to not understand what I am saying). I guess what I am trying to say is that my favorite moment of the year has been seeing my own growth as a father.
I have no clue what 2020 will have in store for the Croyle family. I do know that whatever comes our way, we will have each other and that is all we really need.
