ajchen.com

5/16/12.
3:49am.
8lb. 8oz.

My good friend Sarah approached me a few months ago to see if I’d be interested in working on a piece for Antenna Magazine‘s Winter 2011 issue. I’ve never had any of my writing published before so I was excited for the opportunity; plus, the concept sounded like a lot of fun. The piece compares 24 hours in the day of a dad (me) versus a single man, and my updates were limited to 25 words or less per hour.  I received a copy in the mail this week and finally got to see the completed piece. It’s on newsstands now, but I also scanned it for your reading pleasure. Many thanks to Sarah and Kaity for including me.

I really enjoyed working on this this for several reasons. Firstly, it was fun to compare my life to someone’s who is in such a different place. I didn’t get to read his half until I got the final issue, and while his blurbs didn’t exactly bring back fond memories of licentiousness I do vaguely remember what it was like to be able to come and go as I pleased. My life really does look a lot different now, and it’s especially clear when you see our hourly activities side by side.

Secondly, I’m thankful to have some sort of documentation of what things were like during our first year with Logan. 2011 has brought so many changes for our family and for my work; I’ve had to learn how to handle more responsibilities and get things done in less time. It’ll serve as a good reminder as to how God has provided for us and helped me to make the necessary adjustments along the way.

Lastly, in reading the final piece over, I realized that despite the challenges that come with juggling a company, a retail store, marriage and fatherhood, I really am having a good time. I ran into an acquaintance who works at Antenna while visiting Sarah who told me, “man, I wouldn’t want to be you.” It reminded me of when I got engaged and several coworkers told me in jest that I was going to be miserable. Marriage has been good to me, and becoming a father has been an amazing experience. I won’t lie – there are occasions when I wish I had more time and less responsibilities, but those are fleeting thoughts.

I’m too busy having fun with my wife and kid.

One of the best parts about having a kid is being able to dress him up however you please.

My good friends Wilson and Carol returned from their honeymoon recently with this generous gift for Logan. It’s a child-sized replica of the walnut Eames LCW that already resides in our living room… as soon as they saw it, they knew it’d be perfect for us.

There are a few design adjustments to make it more kid-friendly… most notably, the angle of the seat itself: the child-sized chair doesn’t angle down as much to promote better posture. It also doesn’t use rubber shock mounts on the seat or the backing, which results in the seat having less give. Otherwise, the construction and shape look to be just as nice as our existing one.

While it’ll still be at least a year or two before Logan is able to sit in this chair comfortably, it’s such a nice looking addition to our living room that I’m happy to leave it out until he’s ready for it.

At our SELA grand opening party last fall, YMFY told me about Timbuk2′s custom bag program, where they manufacture one-off bags at their San Francisco headquarters. He generously offered to make one for me outside of the realm of their usual (but still vast) design constraints. A few months passed and as Logan’s due date approached, I realized that there were no diaper bags on the market that I would use – I found most to be either extremely feminine or “duded out” (see here for prime examples). I asked Bin if he’d be willing to work on a bag for me with a few modifications, and he graciously obliged.

First up was choosing a unique fabric for the body. We went with deadstock Pendleton wool that was provided by my good friend Sam at Tanner Goods, who dug this out of their archives.

Timbuk2 bags are extremely well organized to begin with, but in order for it to function as a diaper bag, I asked Bin to add a few bottle holders to the interior.  It turns out that they’re also very useful for storing spare diapers, clothes, etc.

I love these zipper pulls.

This denim changing pad was a gift from Kiya and Demitra. The red tab is still intact on it…

Thanks guys!