DadsAGeek.com 2.0

A Day at the Mall

Randy — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 01:49:44 +0000

хотелско обзавеждане So this REALLY isn’t my favorite thing to do but every once in a while Stacy and the girls find a way to trick me into tagging along while they shop. Today was one of those days. We all went to the movies (the girls and I saw ‘Land of the Lost’ – don’t waste the money, wait for the rental) and Stacy and Sasha went to see “UP”. The movies let out at different times. Sasha and I took off on our own and hit the bookstore before looping back to catch up with the girls. One thing led to another and before you know it we were tagging along at Aeropostale (I guess that’s spelled correctly). Well, Sasha was in a goofy mood already so we decided to have a little fun by pretending to be one of the mannequins (he’s very good at that by the way).

Skaters in the Alley

Randy — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 01:29:22 +0000

Hannah is teaching Sasha all her best moves. So far it’s going very well, but from the look of his eyes, he may have already taken a tumble or two…. No, never mind. That’s just Sasha….

Bubbles!….

Randy — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 01:18:36 +0000

It’s not officially summer without BUBBLES!….

Best Friends

Randy — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 17:23:01 +0000

I took this photo just after Sasha’s kindergarten music program. He and his best friend Matt (left) took a moment away from their cookies to pose for the camera.

Daddy’s lap

Randy — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:35:31 +0000

online casinomach-zehnder Last night was one of those moments that causes you to pause and reflect. If you know our family or have been following this blog for the past year or more then you’ll understand. Last night started out not too different from any other Monday night in the past several months. I arrived home a little before 7PM, went with the kids to walk the dogs, came home and got Sasha in the tub. After a few minutes and the customary back and forth of “Dad?! Can you wash my back?…” and “Dad? Can you help me wash my hair?…”, he was once again the cleanest kid in the western hemisphere. After he finished his bath and donned his favorite “Cars” pajamas, Sasha boarded his trusty 4-wheeler and made his way into the living room with the rest of the family. Now typically, he spends his last few minutes before bedtime teasing his sisters or tormenting the cat (which I strongly encourage by the way) but tonight was different. Tonight Sasha decided that he wanted to sit in his Daddy’s lap. Now Sasha is definitely no stranger to affection and he loves sitting and snuggling up with Mom any chance he gets. But this was new for us. We usually occupy our quality time together with foot-races through the house, sword fighting or doing our best impersonations of the Power Rangers (the Blue Ranger is my favorite). But not tonight. Tonight, with no provocation or words at all he simply walked over to my chair climbed up in my lap and put his head on my shoulder. He didn’t look at me or say a word. And he stayed there with my arms wrapped around him. Now I know it may sound silly but you have to understand the milestone that that simple little gesture represents. It wasn’t that long ago when our relationship was more of a constant compromise of authority between the only 2 “men” in the house. It was difficult for both of us at times. Sure, he knew exactly how he was supposed to relate to Stacy and the girls, but it was different with us. We were both guys. And guys do guy stuff like wrestling and talking about cars. But it’s different now. Over the past 14 months since Sasha’s been a part of our family I have learned more about myself than I ever expected. I had to learn to love him and give him the time to learn to love me. He’s my son. And I can’t imagine our family without him.

Scary face

Randy — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:44:08 +0000

This is Sasha’s “scary face”. I don’t know why but this is one of my favorite pictures of him. I guess it’s because it really shows his personality. I took this picture just after Christmas.

1 year ago today

Randy — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 04:26:06 +0000

Well it’s hard to believe that it’s already been 1 year. That’s right, one year ago today was the day we picked up Sasha from the orphanage in Cheboksary, RU. If you’ve frequently this site for long you’ve probably already read of some of the other events of that day. But even with all of the adventure and drama that fills our memories of that day we have to look back on it now and admit that we had no idea how our lives would be changed. All our lives. He’s a little goofy (as his ad-lib pose in the picture here demonstrates) but he rarely ceases to make us smile. I’m convinced that God has special plans for Sasha and we are truly blessed to be a part of that.

Bloomington Reunion (Sasha sings)

Randy — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 18:49:02 +0000

Bloomington Reunion (Sasha sings) from Randy Bradshaw on Vimeo.
This is another short video taken during day 1 of our Bloomington trip. It starts out with Sasha singing one of his favorite songs from the Disney Channel to Luba. Of course, it’s all in English but she seems to enjoy it anyway. The remainder of the video is a compilation of shots taken by Hannah and even Sasha himself.

Bloomington Reunion

Randy — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:26:49 +0000

Bloomington Reunion from Randy Bradshaw on Vimeo.
In August we took a long weekend and traveled to Bloomington, IL. Sasha’s orphanage director (Luba) had made the trip from Russia so she could see him again. We were there for about 4 days and this short video is day 1. The trip went very well, thanks in no small part to the Cavanaghs who welcomed Luba into their home and put up with us for the duration of our stay in Bloomington.

Like a Child – 6 grade choir program

Randy — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:24:28 +0000

Reagan’s 6th grade choir program. They called it “Like a Child” and, once again, Ms. Gray and the rest of the kids have set the bar a little higher. The video is about 30 minutes long. Sorry about that but I wanted to make sure that we captured it all.