My Blog Year 2012:

Has been wonderful:

1. My son is now 9 1/2 and we get to have extra adventures together due to the blog events we are invited to. From the pumpkin exhibit at the NY Botanical Gradens where he brought home a man eating plant, to events where he plays video games for hours on end, we have both enjoyed an extra dimension to the father/son relationship that makes both of us very happy. And let’s not forget 2 trips to Walt Disney World where we were media guests and treated wonderfully.

2. I have been on several trips this year for the blog (5), and every trip I meet new bloggers. Bloggers are some of my favorite people! Thanks to Facebook, we get to stay in close touch, until the next trip! We share information, we occasionally work together again, it expands my networking group with people that I am thrilled to have in my life!

3.  Disney. I was invited earlier this year to attend the Disney Social Media Moms conference in Walt Disney World. This was to be my first blog trip. I had heard this was a very competitive trip to attain, and here I was invited. Once the shock wore off, the terror struck. My son had airplane flying issues and we lost a Disney trip 2 years earlier. I would not be comfortable until he walked on the plane. He did.

And I heard a phrase at the conference, “Get out of your comfort zone. ” So for the first time since my son’s adoption, I did. Which led me to several more trips in 2012. My first trip sober and solo, was to Chicago in May. I only accepted that trip because I remembered that to move forward, I would have to get out of my comfort zone. And then Disney Movies (Marshall!) offered me a trip to Los Angeles. Building upon my trips out of my comfort zone, I was able to say yes. I had a phenomenal experience. Red carpet walk, celebrity party to celebrate that movie premiere, a voice over in a Disney movie, and of course, more fantastic new blogger friends! All because I learned to get out of my comfort zone, that my family could survive without me controlling everything (although not as well!).

4. The NY area bloggers. Would you think they would be cut throat and competitive? Maybe they are, but for me they have been beautiful and giving. We are all friends  We see each other often at events. I love catching up with everyone, much to the annoyance of the PR folks who then have trouble getting a word in edge wise to talk about the brands they represent! The support of these wonderful folks has been a tremendous boost!

5. Linda, from NYCSingleMom.com. My blog wife. My mentor. The woman who taught me how to blog. At first our kids were in the same grade at the same school. For the last 2 years they have been in the same class. They are great friends and work for their parents, whether it be wearing Madagascar 3 wigs and singing in the theater for our respective blogs, or fighting at video events over the controllers. They were in Disney together with my husband touring Disney World as Linda and I sat in on our conference, we are like one big blog family.

6. My readers. I feel a lot of support from my readers. I started to do a bunch of giveaways on Mondays in the hopes that people would stay and read the blog. I get quite a few emails telling me that my audience enjoys what I have to say about our life in the city, the trips we make, and the products we use. And hopefully the by-product of this is I might be able to get people to read our adoption story so that it may help others to become parents. The impetus for the blog in the first place was to share our adoption story and to show America that gay families are the same as everyone else’s family. I think I have been achieving that.

7. Money. My spouse has been the sole provider for the last 6 years as I became the stay at home dad. It is nice that compensated opportunities have started to come my way so that I can help out monetarily, not just with free products and subsidized vacations.

8. 1 week after I started to compose this year end summary, I was named to Babble’s Top 50 Dad Bloggers list. That was the icing on the cake. That was wonderful recognition for my presence in the blog world as a hybrid mom/dad blogger, my work in the blog community, and reinforcement that I was headed in the right direction. And the recognition did not stop, later that day I was also recognized as one of Scholastic’s top 5 Dad Tweeters!

I am wonderfully grateful for having found my voice, my niche, and my path in the blog world. I am having a great experience, as is my family!

Thank-you all, and Happy New Year! May we all achieve our goals in 2013!