Week 52: FINAL Episode & Reflections on the First Year as a Dad

Welcome to the first year dad podcast. My name is TJ Lacey, I have just recently become a dad and on this podcast I am sharing my journey each week during my first year of the dad life. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the episode. Hello, hello and welcome to the first year dad podcast. This is TJ and we are here with the long overdue 50 second episode of the series going to finally wrap things up. Had quite a bit going on so extremely late on this last episode, but we are here going to give some quick life updates, do a little bit of reflecting on the podcast and the series and experience as a whole first year as a dad, all that good stuff. Then we will be on our way here putting a bow on the first year dad podcast. First things first been a lot going on over here at the Lacey household. We are moving on out to the suburbs next month. We are all set with the new house, got our settlement date. We've been to the house twice now. We are going to do a couple of little things like painting, new carpets, new floors prior to moving in. We've already got half of our stuff out in a storage unit because we have now also successfully sold our house in the city. Lots going on there, spent a nice little week down the beach while people were coming in out of our house in Fish Town for showings, open house, things of that nature. But big things going down and good to get all the house stuff squared away. Liam, the little man, he's doing great. He's walking now. Still not like fully walking as his primary method of transportation, but definitely walking and really developing his own little personality. He's gotten back super into books, but a different kind of book and different, you know, he's picking out different types of books than he was previously liking, which was pretty fun to see and it's just really loving playing outside and just overall enjoying the world, exploring things and spend a lot of fun these past one, two months since Liam has turned one year old. And then in terms of me and the pod or more so me and the first year as a bed, number one, I just truly, truly loved every single phase of it. It's crazy how much happens in a year and just looking back on it really appreciate every little moment and when you think about it, like there's never going to be any more significant growth that happens than what happens in the first year of a human's life. So as a parent, being able to get a front row seat to that whole thing and just help your little one out every step of the way through this insane amount of growth is happening. I just really enjoyed it all the way through. And then number two, I do feel quite proud of the partnership between Christina and I as parents together, feel like being parents has only made us grow stronger and closer as a couple and just happy with the job that we've been able to do of balancing all the things, being a parent but still finding time for ourselves individually, finding time for ourselves together as a couple and of course, while the whole time really soaking in and capturing all the special moments that happen in the first year as parents have been a crazy ride through some challenging times, kids getting sick, all of that. But when I reflect on it, it's truly just a series of really fun special moments that we'll remember forever. And then number three, it's been fun to see the happiness that it brings to the grandparents, aunts and uncles, Liam, the king, as we call him, has really brought a different level of excitement to the family as a whole and he's blessed to have so much love around him. And I just, I enjoy seeing the way everyone is with him, the way he is with them and how those relationships have continued to expand and Liam now recognizing all of them, getting and know all of them. And I just think that that's been really fun for the family and excited for the fam as a whole to continue growing as Liam's got two cousins on the way in the very near future. So that will, we'll just make things even more exciting when we get together as an extended family. And then some reflections on the podcast itself. I enjoyed this a ton. It was a really good way to just get me thinking about the experience of being a dad and each week making sure that I'm super in the moment and taking that time to look back on the week that was and what were the things that stood out to me, what were the things that stood out in terms of Liam's growth and all of the different milestones. And for me, that was really just an important aspect of my first year as a dad and feeling like I was really engaged as a result of this podcast. I think it definitely helped with that. And second, I think it's going to be a fun memory to have and something that is fun that Liam can listen to in the future and check out and maybe as a family one day will reflect on this and go back and listen to some old episodes. But it's just kind of cool to have a somewhat of a public documentation of what it was like for me at this point in time going through my first year as a dad. I have not done the exercise of going back and listening myself. But I know that the person I am today is not the same person that was when I started this pod, so fun to see the growth in myself. And I'm curious as I listen back at some point in the future, if I'm able to kind of get a sense of how I grew individually throughout this entire, you know, challenging experience of being a parent for the first time. And then number three, lastly, it was not not super easy doing the podcast. I feel like I always was able to come up with good content and find good content to talk about, but didn't always do the best job of being on any kind of consistent schedule, really, which is obviously evident in the super late last episode. But hey, for the most part, I was able to get episode out every single week. And things get a little crazy when you're a parent, so not everything can be on a consistent schedule. And hey, it lines up with kind of how we like to be as parents where we've got a loose schedule and a loose plan. But for the most part, you got to be flexible and adaptable. And that's kind of how I approached the cadence of these episodes coming out. But there we have it all in all, really, really fantastic experience, everything about being a dad, everything about doing this podcast, everything about the growth that Christine and I experienced as parents, been a hell of a journey. And thanks to everyone out there that has tuned into this along the way. Hope you were entertained or learned something or got some kind of something out of this because I know I certainly did. And who knows, maybe we'll be back with another type of podcast in the future. But for now, I'm going to chill and enjoy this next chapter of my life. It feels like a true turning of the page as we move on out of the city into the suburbs. And we'll see where things take us next. So one last time, I'm TJ Lacey. This was the first year dad podcast. And I'll see you when I see you. Peace.