It’s been 3 wonderful years and my little baby girl celebrates another birthday. Time really does seem to fly by. The midwife called her a little “puddle.” She was 6 pounds and 6 ounces of pure joy. A false sense of calm preceded the storm. Twilli arrived with much ado and haste. She could not wait to escape her mother’s ovarian bastille.

Over the course of the following year, we witnessed an incredible transformation. This little peanut grew and grew. I grew as a person and discovered more about who I am. We wished Twilli a happy birthday once again.

2009 brought even more changes. After mastering autonomous ambulation, she moved on to expressing herself verbally. Twilli’s healthy chompers ensured that she could enjoy grown up food.

As she develops and grows, none of it really seems like a surprise, but it is no less wonderful. Her personality was evident from the moment she arrived, but to see it come out as she grows is a delight.

This is the girl who pointed to her mom and said, “You! Time out!” On Mother’s Day no less!

Twilli is also fond of all animals. She especially loves dogs and cats. One day, she gets on all fours, turns to me and says, “Now I’m a kitty too! Meow!” Then she crawls away, continuing to meow.

Twilli, you are my truest of true loves. You’re 3 years old today and I love you even more every day. I can’t wait to see when you blossom into an amazing young girl, teenager, and young woman. For now, I’ll enjoy every moment as it comes.

Bad blogger! No link love for you!!! I’ve been hiding. You know you’ve neglected your blog if several WordPress updates have been released since your last post.

I have some good news to share. Life circumstances and the random acts of others in the blogosphere have brought me out of hiding. There are some new and exciting things on the horizon for 21st Century Dad. Just wait. Hang out. Add me to your RSS feed reader and you won’t miss a beat.

Despite my inactivity, I’ve been featured on a couple of blogs.

Beth at “Open Seven Days A Week. Closed Sundays” decided that I would be a good single dad to profile for Single Parents Day. Don’t let the pretty face and blonde hair fool you. She actually knows what she’s talking about and she is a gifted writer. This is a long-overdue shout-out. She did her little write-up about me back in March! Read all about it.

Once your blog gains some traction, you become interconnected with other bloggers. Through this interconnection, Chris Goforth tracked me down. He’s a Real Authentic Man. I am so tapped out for time to engage in yet another social networking site. I am ashamed to admit that I haven’t responded to his invitation to join Real Authentic Men. OK, so I’m already a member of one Ning site, and that’s the only sign-in I need, but do I just create a profile, post the obligatory profile pic and just pad his numbers? I feel more than just a twinge of guilt if I don’t participate. As if that wasn’t enough, my job has a social network for its employees.

You might know Chris as PapaRocks6 on Twitter. I was featured in his series on Real Authentic Men.

Today is Father’s Day, a celebration of fatherhood and a day to be the best dad you can be. Spend a little extra time with your children. Twilli is visiting her extended family in Oklahoma this week. Mom’s posting photos on Facebook and I can see that they’re having a great time.

Say hi to some of these great dads out there in the blogosphere. Most are dad bloggers, but some are bloggers who happen to be dads.

• Bobby Williams
• Buck Daddy
• Building Camelot
• Dad of Divas
• Dad Thing
• Dad’s Workbench
• Daddy Dazed
• Daddy’s Toolbox
• Discovering Dad
• DIY Father
• Frugal Dad
• Hubby, Daddy, Techie
• Joeprah
• Metro Dad
• Mocha Dad
• Planet Saturday
• Rice Daddies
• Steve Pavlina
• Strobist
• The Busy Dad Blog
• The Wisdom Journal

We all wonder what skills and traits you need to be a good parent. Who would’ve thought aeronautical engineering would make the list?

I bought a toy styrofoam airplane at Dollar Tree a few weeks ago. I took Twilli to the park and busted out the glider. She loved how I could throw it. She loved throwing it. She had a blast.

This past Thursday, I brought it out again. Twilli saw some young children close to her age playing across the street. She went over there to say hi. The other children really liked the glider too. They all took turns playing with it.

One of the children stepped on it and broke a piece of the wing off. His mother scolded him and offered to replace the toy. What a stand-up kind of mom! I declined the gesture. It was only a dollar. The lady insisted. Twilli promptly pocketed the money.

Later on that day, I examined the broken wing and determined that I could fix it easily. The pieces came back together very easily. I used a couple of staples and a few small pieces of tape. I don’t want to add more weight to a glider than necessary. I duplicated the repair efforts on the other wing to balance the weight out.

You know you’re being frugal when you decide to repair a toy you bought at Dollar Tree! I paid $1. The State of Tennessee got an additional 9.25% out of me. The debit card processing company got  a piece of that dollar too. The Chinese guy working in the factory (who also makes the “We Support Our Troops” stickers and ribbons) got a piece of it as well.

In the first photo, you can see I put some black tape on the nose of the airplane. Initial test flights showed that the center of gravity was too far back. It needed to move forward, so I added a screw to the nose and put black tape over it. It flies much better now.

Since this is Twilli’s airplane, I had to decorate it appropriately. As a young boy, I was obsessed with airplanes. I loved going to the airport. I loved flying. I loved playing with toy airplanes. I didn’t have to tell her any of this. She just knows that daddy would be tickled if she loved airplanes too.

The frequency of postings has declined over the past year. Those of you who know me on Facebook and Twitter also know I am fairly active there. Longtime readers, or rather, the friends I’ve made while I was posting regularly, will know that I tend to put a lot of thought into my blog posts. For the regular news from my life, Facebook and Twitter have been my outlets. I’m sure the time I spend chatting with friends or leaving witty comments on people’s status updates could’ve been used to craft a dozen or so blog posts over the past year.

Guitar Center

After moving to Tennessee, I wasn’t very picky about job prospects. I knew I needed to get a job ASAP. I wasn’t really interested in working at a music store again, but I had experience and knowledge to do it. Guitar Center was the first place that offered me a job, and it turned out to be a much better place to work than I had initially imagined. I am in control of how much I earn. I have fun every day. I work with a great bunch of guys and gals. I have announced to upper management that Guitar Center is part of my long-term plans.

Being around musicians and people who love music has reawakened the desire to play again. This time around, I’m going to refresh my piano playing skills. The keyboard excites me now. Guitar doesn’t do it for me like it used to.

No More Amazon.com Goodies

Due to my employment at Guitar Center, my involvement with the Amazon Associates program would constitute a conflict of interest. Yes, Amazon.com sells musical instruments. Of course, I would much rather you buy from Guitar Center. I quietly terminated the Amazon goodness a while ago, but haven’t gotten around to announcing the end of a good run.

Final Thoughts for the Day

Most people probably stopped reading about 200 words ago. Put “Facebook” in the title of a blog post or mention social media, and it’s instant link-bait. If you’re still with me, that probably means you’re a stalker or immune to the rampant ADD in our society today.

This blog isn’t going away. It’s just become more like a quarterly newsletter than a blog. There is plenty in the archives for new dads. I still get a fair amount of traffic based on the strength of some of my posts.

I still schedule posts to go live at 8:07. 8/07 is Twilli’s birthday. 8:07pm in 24-hour format is 20:07. Twilli was born in 2007.