Daddy Dan

First, let me introduce Maddie, Mike and Heather Spohr’s adorable baby girl…

Maddie was born on November 11, 2007, over 11 weeks premature.   You can read all about why she was born so early here, and her long, 68-day stay in the hospital at her Mommy Heather’s blog.  It’s a heart-wrenching, nerve-wracking saga, even though you know there’s going to be a very happy ending to the story.

Maddie is doing much better today, and as you can see from the pictures above and below (and tons more on both Mike and Heather’s websites), she is a very happy baby.

Both Mike and Heather’s blogs are focused on Maddie.  They are both outstanding writers with great senses of humor.  Mike’s site, The Newborn Identity, is on the lighter side, while Heather’s site, The Spohr’s Are Multiplying, while often funny, deals more with the tough times Maddie has been through.

Mike and Maddie out on the town…

Without further ado, he’s my interview with Mike and Heather…

Daddy Dan:  Tell me a little about yourselves.

Heather: Wife. Mom. Dog owner. Criminally gorgeous.

Mike: 32 year old white male. Married. Baby. Dog.

DD: How long have you been blogging?

Heather: I have been blogging since 2002 – before the word “blog” was known.  I used to code my website by hand every time I updated it.  I started my current blog in June of 2007.

Mike: I’m a newbie as far as all of this goes…just started a few months ago.

DD:  What got you started?

Heather: I started my first blog as a way to be creative when I was working as an executive assistant.  There wasn’t a whole lot of room to think outside the box, and I felt like my brain was turning to mush.

Mike: Basically I was tired of twiddling my thumbs while Heather wrote her posts – because really, how much thumb twiddling can one guy do – so I decided I’d get into the mix myself!

Heather: And also because I made him.

DD:  Why do you continue blogging?  What do you get out of it?  How long do you think you’ll continue?

Heather: I like having a record of my life to look back on.  It’s really cool that I have six years of my life cataloged, and whenever I want I can go into the archives and say, “Hey, on this day I did this.”  I’ll continue to blog as long as I have something to say.

Mike: I also do a lot of other writing (screenplays, novels, short stories, songs, grocery lists), and those, for the most part, take a long time to finish and get feedback on.  With a blog you can write something one hour, post it, and then receive feedback the next hour!  The community aspect is great.  You see you’re not alone in this madness of child rearing.  I will continue to blog as long as I have time.

DD:  Tell me a little about your blogs.

Heather: My blog is about myself and my family.  I blog about stuff that happens to me and my daughter mostly, and I let Mike write about stuff that involves him.  I have written about everything from my daughter’s repeat hospitalizations to her teething issues to my postpartum depression and inability to do a single push up.  Whatever I think will be an interesting read.

Mike: My blog focuses mostly on my interactions with Maddie as a stay at home Dad.  I try to keep the tone lighter than Heather’s blog, since she does a great job of keeping readers abreast of the tough times Maddie has gone through, but some days that’s not entirely possible.

DD:  Why should people read your blog?

Heather: Well, I think that our lives are fairly interesting.  We are your typical new parents, but we have this extraordinary little baby that has overcome insane obstacles in her short lifetime.  There are very few topics I won’t write about (really, I just don’t touch religion or politics because blech), and it’s my hope that my openness will create a little community.

Mike: If you enjoy reading mommy and daddy blogs I’m not a bad place to stop.  On a good day my posts are pretty funny, if I do say so myself, and, if they’re not, well, you can at least check out the latest adorable photo of the World Famous Maddie Moo (aka Chicken Muffin Love Bear).

DD:  What types of blogs do you enjoy reading?

Heather: I read parenting blogs.  I know, I don’t branch out much.  I like blogs that are humorous in their approach to life.  Parenting can suck sometimes, but it’s often hilarious and that’s definitely more my style.

Mike: I enjoy reading blogs of young families like my own, but also enjoy reading about what is happening in the lives of all kinds of people.  I do like some musician’s blogs too, though reading blogs of people like Courtney Love can be a real test of the will sometimes.  And grammar/spelling.

DD:  What are your favorite “non-blogging” activities?

Heather: Non-blogging activities?  There are such things?  Well, I like spending time with Mike and Maddie and our dog.  I love shopping (I’m so predictable).  Going to the movies, spending time with friends, going to sporting events, and laughing – lots of laughing.

Mike: Movies, bowling, baseball…damn I sound boring.  Um…let me add a fake but interesting activity like archaeology.

DD:  What is the secret to happiness?

Heather: Getting your child to sleep through the night.

Mike: The Buddhists believe the secret to happiness is to never desire anything.  Unfortunately, I am American and desire a lot.  I want everything Madie will ever want, for my screenwriting career to take off, and for the Giants to win the World Series.  I also want six pack abs, but have little patience for exercise.  So, yeah, I don’t think happiness is in the cards for me.  But I gave you the secret…desire nothing!

DD:  What is your favorite quote?

Heather: “You’ve destroyed my beautiful wickedness!” The Wicked Witch of the West, The Wizard of Oz

Mike: Woody Allen in Annie Hall:  ”There’s an old joke…two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of ‘em says, “Boy, the food at this place is really terrible.”  The other says, “Yeah, I know; and such small portions.”  Well, that’s essentially how I feel about life – full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it’s all over much too quickly.

DD:  What, so far, has been the happiest moment of your life?

Heather: Well, when we brought Maddie home from the hospital, that was pretty great.  But I think every day when I come home from work and she and Mike smile at me, and my dog runs to greet me, that life is pretty great.

Mike: I have to sort of echo Heather here…Maddie’s birth was NOT the happiest moment because she was VERY ill.  So I don’t have a landmark moment there.  HOWEVER whenever she, Heather, our dog, and myself are healthy and hanging out it is a very happy moment.  Also, in high school I once hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning…watching the ball glide over the wall, trotting the bases, being mobbed at home plate by my teammates…it was one of the rare moments in life I was actually the hero I would like to be instead of the schlub I often am.

DD:  What has been your biggest regret?

Heather: I wish I’d applied myself more in college so that I had the option to go to grad school.  HA, I’m just kidding.  I wish I had tried to sing professionally.  I was too scared of failure.

Mike: A lot of things…if I could go back in time I would have done a lot of things differently and Maddie, Heather, and myself would be living at the top of the hill instead of…wherever the heck we are.  I won’t harp on that though…I want to focus on doing things right from now on so I don’t have any more regrets.

DD:  Where do you see yourselves in ten years?

Heather: In the mirror.

Mike: What is it they say?  The way to make God laugh is to make plans?  So I won’t do it.  Or I will totally punk God with reverse psychology and say that I plan to be penniless and sleeping in the gutter.

DD:  Do you monitor your blog stats?

Heather: Yes.  Anyone who says they don’t isn’t being truthful.  If you don’t monitor them, why do you have a sitemeter?

Mike: Hardly ever.  Thirty, forty times a day.

DD:  What are your favorite places in the world?

Heather: Our king-sized bed at home, the beach in Fiji where we honeymooned, and sitting on the dock of the bay watching the tide roll away.

Mike: I second Heather’s places, but nix the dock thing.  Otis Redding talked about sitting on the dock and then died in a plane crash like a week later.  So no dock for me.  Another good place is the movie theater.  It’s great to know you have a good two hours away from everything before you have to return to real life.

DD:  What are five things you want to do before you die?

Heather: Travel the world, go on a singing audition, meet Madeline’s grandchildren, get a full night’s sleep, and take a baseball bat to my crappy car.

Mike: Man, you are big on this whole planning for the future thing, aye?  Well, like I said earlier, desiring things makes you unhappy, and God laughs at those who have plans, so what’s the point?  Oh, whatever.  Here are my five. 1.  Record one of my songs in a studio with real musicians.  2.  See the Giants win the World Series.  3.  Hang out with the adult Maddie and old lady Heather just laughing and having a good time.  4.  Visit Mexico.  5.  See something I wrote on the big screen or sitting in a book store.

DD:  Tell us something most people don’t know about you.

Heather: I’m shorter than I look.

Mike: I hate to break this to my wife, but she actually looks pretty damn short.  As for me, I think most people don’t know that I am much more serious than I appear.  People often think I am the happiest man on earth for some reason!

DD:  Describe being a parent to those who haven’t experienced it yet.  Is it what you expected?

Heather: Yeah, I’d say it’s what I expected.  We knew that it would be a shitload of work, and it definitely has been.  But it’s too awesome to watch this little thing grow and learn and develop a personality and know that WE are responsible for the kind of person she’ll become.

Mike: Being a parent is every cliche you’ve ever heard about parenting entirely.  It’s loads of work, it changes your life, and you love the little sucker more than anything.

DD:  How has becoming a parent changed your views on life?

Heather: It’s given me perspective.  I don’t really sweat a lot of stuff anymore.  We’ve been through some hard times with Maddie and it kind of makes being a few minutes late to an appointment unimportant, you know?

Mike: It makes you sense your own mortality as well.  The next generation is on the way up…but you’re okay with that.

DD:  Will you be having more children?

Heather: Hard to say.  We’d LIKE to have one more child, but there is a lot to consider.  The doctors don’t know if I will have another difficult pregnancy.  They don’t know what caused my water to break at 19 weeks gestation.  So there is no way of knowing if it will happen again, or if it does, if we’ll be as lucky the second time around.  It will take a while for me to be mentally prepared for all the What-Ifs.

Mike: I’d like one more, but we would also need financial stuff…home/jobs/etc. to make it feasible.

DD:  What one milestone are you most looking forward to Maddie reaching?

Heather: I’m really looking forward to when she starts talking.  I can’t wait to hear how she expresses herself and to see how her mind works.

Mike: Right now it is crawling.  I can’t wait!

DD:  Last question.  Is Maddie real?  A baby that perfectly adorable has to be a doll or something, right?

Heather: She’s real.  Mike and I, on the other hand, are totally fake.

Mike: Well, you are a blonde in Hollywood, Heather.

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Also:  Don’t miss the entire series of Daddy Dan Interviews

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Tags: Funny, Interviews

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