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Nate Smith is an improvisational comedian, a husband, and a father. He's not sure which is hardest. Learn more about Nate Smith at bestnatesmithever.com
Improvising Fatherhood
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I was feeling down yesterday and Wyatt asked me what was wrong. I said, “I’m a little sad.”
He asked, “Did you have a bad day?”
I said, “Yeah.”
Then, he gleefully said, “Sad, dad, bad, had. Dad is sad. Very, very sad. He had a bad day. What a day Dad had.”
Goddamn Dr. Seuss.
Holy cow that’s hilarious.
BOOM! Here’s an all new episode of Fighting with Babies, now in glorious HD.
It clocks in at about 90 seconds, so you have no excuse not to watch it.
David Vienna has weird looking kids.
As if my son hasn’t brought enough joy into my world, recently he has found yet another way to make me extremely happy.
Chandler’s batting skills are really improving and now he can hit some pretty decent ground balls off the tee. This means I get to do one of my favorite activities in the world. Fielding ground balls.
I had almost forgotten how much I love this simple pastime.When I was in grade school, my mom used to wake me up early and take me out to a nearby baseball field and hit ground balls to me for an hour before school. My dad’s batting cage business ran summer baseball camps and we played a game called eliminator where each player would stand in front of an indoor soccer goal and attempt to keep a ground ball from getting by. I loved that game more than anything.
It’s been years since I have played anything resembling real baseball. After college I played in a few recreational softball leagues, but that was years ago. Now, I get to watch as my son learns how to hit, and I get to be on the receiving end of his ground balls.
When it’s time to go in for dinner and my son whines and says, “I want to play more baseball,” I know exactly how he feels.
This weekend we will be engaging in a three day potty training intensive. Basically, Chandler will be sans diaper during his waking hours starting from today until Sunday night.
Up until now we have not forced potty training on Chandler. We have made the potty readily available and have encouraged him to use it quite a bit. But for the most part we have been letting “nature” take its course.
All of that hippy-dippy-do-what-you-please crap ends today. It will be replaced with a sink-or-swim approach and in this analogy it is Chandler’s pee-pee that we will be sinking and/or swimming in.
Right about now, as I sit here at my desk at work, my darling wife is explaining to our son that he won’t be wearing a diaper today. I wish her the best of luck and would like her to know I might be working late tonight.
I will of course be live-blogging this event all weekend. I also look forward to hearing any suggestions you guys have about potty training, and subsequently ignoring and/or laughing at those suggestions.
Laugh Out Loud - Johnny & Jason
My son is absolutely obsessed with Johnny & Jason. With their permission we have recorded a music video to their song Laugh Out Loud.
How did my son get to be such a rock star? Check back tomorrow for behind the scenes footage of me teaching him how to be a rock star.
Amen, Frank Zappa. Amen. And nice cat.
(Related: In light of the Johnny Depp thing from last week, I’d like to point out that Frank Zappa is my dopplegänger.)
I can always see the frustration in Chandler’s eyes when I tell him to do something rather than tell him why I want him to do something, or when I forcibly pick him up and move him somewhere, rather than asking him to follow me.
Obviously there are times when I have to use the “because I said so” method. But I am really trying to always explain to Chandler why what I want him to do is actually something he should want to do too.
Sometimes this process helps me realize that doing things “my way” isn’t actually necessary at all. You’d think being married 7 years would have done that already.
Tonight it struck me that in about 5 months I’ll be starting the process of fatherhood all over again. The late nights. The burp cloths. The late nights.
But of course, I won’t be starting over completely. We’ll still have Chandler…at least I think that’s how this works. But I’ll also have this new kid to take care of. How are we going to pull that off?
Right now, one of the main reasons I am excited for our new child is so that Chandler will have a sibling to play with. I realize that my entire focus is on Chandler and I can’t imagine splitting my focus between them.
What if I don’t like the new baby as much as I like Chandler? I mean, that’s what happened when my little sister was born.
Or what if I like new baby WAY more Chandler? I mean, that’s definitely NOT what happened when my little sister was born. But I’m sure it could happen.
What if new baby isn’t as good as Chandler at acting in my videos? Or what if new baby turns out to be a total diva and demands his/her own trailer?
What if new baby is a bad influence on Chandler and they gang up on us and steal our money and run away for a life of crime?
What if new baby hates my blog? Or what if new baby sees my blog as a business opportunity and demands royalties for use of his/her likeness.
I just realized I’m going to have to make a new banner for Improvising Fatherhood featuring Me, Chandler, and new baby, all with fake mustaches.
What if new baby comes out with a full mustache?
Why does my toddler’s mattress need a 25 Year Warranty? 25 years from now I want nothing to do with this.
That’s right. This July, coming to an Improvising Fatherhood blog near you, A NEW BABY!!!!
We don’t know the gender, and based on the ultrasound images we’re not even sure about the species. Chandler is very excited to have a new baby in the family. He has been carrying around a baby doll - and sometimes a baby monkey - that he has been taking care of.
Okay, I’m going to go take a nap now. I’m tired just thinking about this.
Here’s a video of Chandler “reading”. Pretty much he has memorized the book. It’s still pretty good.
After watching (and being apart of) my last video, The Basketball Diaperies, Chandler has now started throwing the soccer ball around and saying, “Get that noise out here!”
Another victory in parenting.
Parenting via sattelite
Nate Smith, Best Dad Ever: The Basketball Diaperies: Nate Smith continues being a jerk to his two-year-old son in his latest Slacktory video.
I haven’t been writing a ton lately, mainly because I’ve been focusing my efforts on filming videos. I’ve started what I hope is just the beginning of a long series of videos that involve Chandler and I engaging in various activities together. Last week I released a video of Chandler and I playing Legos and next week I’ll be posting a video in which I teach Chandler the finer points of Basketball.
It has been a lot of fun making these videos. I’ve enjoyed getting back to the medium of film, which was my primary focus in college. At one point I had dreams of being a video editor. The process of editing the footage that Chandler and I create is truly a joy.
Filming the videos has also been a lot of fun. Chandler is quite the little ham. After seeing a video of me imitating things that he says, he gets really excited when I ask him if he wants to make a funny video with me.
But working with a 2-year-old can be a real delicate process. Today, before we started filming, I told Chandler, “We’re going to make a funny video. Now, I’m going to pretend to be mean, okay? But I’m not mean. And I love you.” He gave me his verbal consent, but there were times throughout the shoot that I had to remind him that we were just playing.
Every good director has a vision for their film, but when you’re filming with a 2-year-old, that vision has to be a little more fluid. For some reason Chandler just didn’t seem to care when I told I had “just three more shots I want to get.” He was ready to play trains, and there was nothing I could do about it.
These video projects have been a lot of fun, and I hope they can be something that Chandler and I do together for years to come. I look forward to the day that he is the one doing the directing and I am playing small bit parts in his funny videos.
An honorable mention needs to go to my wife, who not only allows me to use her only child as a stooge in my silly videos, but also handles the camera for me and is a masterful videographer.
