The Legend of Samuel Brock: October 2009

I do believe that every child at one point would like to hear a story about the day that they were born. Your mother and I had an appointment for her to go into labor on April 13th 2006 at St. Mary's Hospital because on one appointment Dr. Su said you mom's fluid in her belly was low. One of Dr. Su's tech's called after we got home from that appointment and your mom said the tech said "are you ready to have a baby today!" Before we went to the Dr's we stopped in at Longhorns and had dinner, it was sometime in the afternoon. We were so very excited, and believe me your mother was ready to have her body back.

She tried to do things like walking to see if she could get you going...where we use to live on Clark St, across the street was a school and a couple days before we actually went to have you, Your mom, Savannah, and I went over to a soccer field and Vanny and your mom walked around the field several times. I remember it was a wonderful day and I sat on this little hill and like many days and nights thought about what you would be like as I watched your sissy and mother holding hands walking and talking. I prayed every night that you would be a healthy baby and for God to make you be healthy despite the shortcomings or bad things I have done before. I also wanted you to have the look of your mother with her eyes, hair and teeth. I know God has answered my prayers in his own ways before but this time Brock...I received exactly what I begged the almighty for. I realize it might not have had anything to do w/ my prayers but you did turn out to be exactly that. Today you have thick blond hair blue eyes and all of your teeth are in line, and are an all boy kind of boy and have a had great health, thankfully. Even my dad noticed... We were up there eating dinner and he mentioned how all your teeth were lined. That makes me very happy. Your mother to, she felt like none of her children looked like her.

So we get to the hospital and settle in and they give her the stuff that will induce labor but said it will take several hours before the action will start...so we watched TV and I tried to make her comfortable. I will never know what exactly she was feeling but the adrenaline running trough me was intense. I was worried, happy, excited, anxious, calm, and nervous all at once. I know neither one of us hardly slept. Sometime during the night I had a video camera and was goofing around and was commentating on it and I think your mom got frustrated so I turned it to the outside and there was a full moon. To me, I thought that was a good sign and thought to myself that the chief in the sky was shining a bright light for all your angels to make their way and greet you. After you were born I gave you the name "Brightmoon Longtoes". Due to the moon and despite your head being Alien :) I, for some reason, thought your toes were exceptionally long.

The next day, April 14th, the doctors come in and get mom ready. I am beside myself. She is humorous and excited. Dr. Su was your main doctor and she was awesome the whole time throughout the pregnancy. I am very proud that every doctor visit we had I was there for support and to just experience the whole thing was literally like watching a miracle occur.

The birth was spectacular. We had Grandma Tracy and Sherry in there to help. Grandma Tracy was on your left side and me on the right...I say you I mean your moms..We were taking pics and coaching her...After some time went by your mom was growing a lil bit frustrated near the end she put on her head phones and played some Ray Lamontagne and said when you came the song "Trouble" was playing. You came out face up which at the time I didn't know that was odd I guess baby's are suppose to come out face down. You came out with a loud cry and your head looked like a Alien. To myself I was Like Oh no but was still immediately in love. Dr Su told me that all the fluids in your body got pressured up to the end of you head so I was like oh ok thats great. Everythings fine? She said yea he is fine :)

Here you are right after birth...notice the time on the pic 14, (April14th) 1:04pm.

Thats my hand cutting your ambilical cord..what you can't see is that my hand was shaking.

This is you getting turned over to your mother and holding you for the 1st time.

I will never forget this day.

The look on our faces, I do believe, pretty much sums up anything that I could attempt to write.

Best smile I have ever seen

The Placenta. Your 1st clubhouse.

My 1st time holdong you. There are tears in my eyes.... happiest moment of my life.

Before I got to hold you you had to get some stuff done over here and they took you to do it right when you were born. I was with your mother making sure she was ok and Dr. Su said Hey Sam you wanna meet your son? I was like oh yes I do..I was in such a tremendous state...I walked over there and said Hi son I am your Dad you were crying and after I said that you stopped for a moment and opened your eyes and we, right there, had begun. I stuck out my finger and you grabbed it

Here they are wiping you off.

Sleeping in the nusery.....I stare at you for a long while. I was so proud of you. Still am. Always will be.

Dr Su. Prepping for birth. She is a fabulous doctor.

Grandma Sherry meeting you

Grandma Tracy meeting you

A couple days later at Papa Pete's for Easter.

I love you son.

Today is Friday and you and I will be driving up to see papa Jim tonight. I'm really excited. He has been working on a cabin down by the river and if the weather is nice I hope us 3 can get on boat and catch us some biggens. The drive up will take bout 4 hours.

Oct 20, 2009
Brock our trip was awesome.....We left about 6:30 Friday and you were sleeping before we got to Kingdom City. It was kind of a lonely trip for me. When I got tired of jamming out to the radio I tried to call my friends on my cell but I was outta range so besides checking the map from time to time I just pondered. I thought about you a lot and I thought about your mom and I thought about my dad that I specifically remember. I have made that drive to see dad many times..I wish it could be more, but some things just are the way they are. No more wrong than right, just life..... from what I have gathered.
My father, James Arther Alexander, is a good man. I have always seen him as a person that may not be able to tell you exactly the way he feels but he has always shown me that he he loves me very much. Growing up.... I spent my summers with him, which is why I am a Cubs fan and that's why you are right now to. I spent many nights at the ballpark with him. He played Fastpitch, which to me is much funner than slow pitch, but no one plays fast pitch anymore. There are no pitcher's for it anymore. I learned the game through my dad. During the summer, I would spend my days in the neighborhood playing ball with all the kids that lived there.

This last Sunday at dad's you and I went for a walk and I showed you all the ball fields in all the yards I played in while dad was at work. To me those were wonderful memories fulll of laughter, friends, scrathes, and fighting and swimming. I told you all the names of the kids that lived in each house and what they were like and it was great how you were listening. You really seemed interested in all my friends when I was a little boy. After I told you something you would say "daddy you played ball here when you were a lil boy like me"?? Son you are so special..I love telling you stories..I'm gonna do it for as long as I live..I realize you may not always want to hear them as you get older but... I will anyways ;)
This one open field next to the highway has a group of bushes we used as the outfield fence and to us that was our Wrigley, they were tall and it represented the ivy in Chicago.When we strolled by there, I had a rush of the many hot summer days I spent there...I remember many days when Dad would get dropped off at one of the neighbors house by the field after work and he would always have a smile watching all of us kids playing ball sometimes he would take a few swings...If the game was over we would walk back to our house together, He worked hard.. He always came home in his Bib Overalls and was pretty dirty..He built tractors at CASE in Burlington Ia. The house he still lives in he built when he got out of the Army..He started working for CASE around that time and he retired from there a few years ago...If you think about it, that is outstanding. I am very proud of my dad. A lot of nights he would be in a hurry to get his uniform on and he and I would rush off to his games, I use to watch him tie his shoes when he came out of his bedroom in his "Biggsville" uniform and his blue sox he would use tape near the knee so they wouldn't fall down....I'd be right there holding my glove watching and asking questions and jabbering...If not his game, it would be for one of my lil league games. He was my coach for every summer I spent with him . I loved every minute of it. If I had a game I would always be dressed in my uni and ready to go at least an hour before he got home....thinking about it alll day. On the days we didn't play we would practice. Watch the Cubs.. and Cardinals or the Braves.... or whatever game we could find with his satellite.....Sometimes we would go to Burlington to watch the minor league team they had there....To me, that was a big deal. I was a pitcher and a shortstop in lil league and forever after that really and dad was a catcher for his team and we spent many evenings together with him catching and me pitching to him....after that he would hit me ground balls....sometimes he wouldn't let me quit until I scooped up several in a row...sometimes I thought that was mean but the next night I would be asking him to do it again, I loved it.
All the boys on our street were older than me, the two guys I always hung around with, Nick Peterson and David Belcher, were several years older than me, 4 yrs I think, and I would take a beating with them. They never let up on me because if for some reason I hit one of their pitches or hit a jumper on em I would let em know. I was lways tryin to beat them, I rarely did but I learned how to win. I think I bothered them quite a bit.. always calling them to play baseball or basketball if it was colder..

So we get to Grandpa's Friday night around 10:30 and you woke up right when we were pulling into their driveway..as we are getting out I see dad, and you said "Hey there's Papa Jim" and he held out his arms and you went right to him. It makes me a very proud dad to share my son with my dad and I know by the look on dad's face how happy it makes him feel.
We get in there and before too long you are showing off for everyone..talking spanish with Laura and playing with there dogs Bear and Candy...we have this thing were you say you are going to tell a secret and you go up to my ear and lick it and say..I poop poop in your ear, well you did that to everyone they thought it was funny..maybe weird but funny :)
We finally get to bed around 1am and boy I was ready. The next day we woke and you and I and dad went to the river to check out his cabin

This cabin was flooded out in the floods they had last summer...water was all the way up to the roof..so dad knows this guy and he bought it from him pretty cheap, the inside is still damaged but dad put on a new roof and will work on getting the inside done after he finishes helping the Kane's harvest their crops. There is a boat underneath the cabin....

that we really need to get on w/ dad next summer....

You got up there and wanted to get it on the water but it was really windy that day and just too cold but we will before too long. It will be a real good day when you , dad, and I can be out on the river fishin and talkin. Then as the sun goes down we will bring the fish back to the cabin, turn on the radio, clean the fish and start cooking, as the years go by I am darn sure we will have some fun times here.

The yard to play in is huge, We can play catch, go swimmin, fish off the bank, with a neat lil island, that we will explore.

After we got done checking out the cabin area...I wish I would have taken more pictures but It would have been weird if all I did was take pics..sometimes words I hope can give a clear image of our adventure, so after the cabin we called Jason Kane, my cousin (dad's sister's 2nd child) to see if they were "pickin corn" and he said no, the ground was too wet but they were messing around on the farm , fixin things and stuff an for us to come over. They wanted to see you and I, they have met you a few times before probably seen you 3 times over your three year career.

The drive took about 20 minutes through the country and the colors of the fall were in full force...so pretty, part of the way we would be driving through fields and you knew it was corn cause Marcus and I stopped, coming back from fishing back home one time, and tore off an ear and gave it to ya so you could know were corm comes from......you would say, "Dadddy the corn is tall and I like corn". You are really analytical when you talk. then you would ask, "why isn't that corn tall"? You were talking about the bean fields...I told you those were beans and the rest of the way you would point out to me and dad were the beans were. You did that the rest of the way and even told Jason and Jeremy Kane when we were driving later on that day...they were very impressed.

We get there and as we are pulling up to their farm, you were amazed by all the tractors and cows they had...we get out and you immedialtely ran off and climbed on the tractor they were fixing

You loved this place. The people at the farm there were John Kane, the father of Jeremy and Jason who were also there. Then there was Danny Kane and Art Kane, Johnny's brothers and John Kane. This John Kane is 11 yrs old, he is the son of Jim Kane, another son of John Kane who was not there..and of course dad and I.

We sat there and chatted for a while and caught up, watched you run around and look at everything and ask questions eventually you saw some cows sectioned off and wanted to get closer.

You told me me you were gonna go look at em and Uncle John Kane asked if you wanted to feed em...you smiled and said yea and he gave you a bucket of ear corn or "Cow Candy" as they call it.

We went over there and called the cows to come over I was saying "here cow" and "suuuuueeeee". In your sweet lil voice you were saying "come on cows" . "Want some candy cows"? Eventually they would come over and eat our corn

After that we took some on a 6 wheeler down to the other cows, you saw some of the calves, or baby cows as you called them and they were behind the bigger ones and asked me to throw some to them to, and handed me some corn ....this is what really makes me proud. You do things like that..you are not even 4 yrs old and you spotted baby cows that weren't getting any cow candy and asked me to throw some to them...very good son.

We drive back up to the barn shed and you asked Jason for a ride on the tractors he said ok. You jumped into his arms and claimed him as your new buddy..right before that John gave you some cheetos so now you were rollin in fun

Jase took you for a lil ride,
Then after that you wanted to ride everything. You went on a ride in the combine with Jase

Dad, you, and I went for a ride in the semi, the semi is used for taking the corn or beans to the sale barn after the combine fills it up, its huge inside, even has a bed.... we drove around. Dad is getting his license to drive that kind of rig to speed up the harvest cause with all the rain we have had they are way behind. This corn and beans that they are picking up is their pay day. They work all year long for this. That's one reason behind our "Thanksgiving" holiday. For farmers this is huge. Their whole way of life depends on it. Most people will never understand.This was the 1st time both you and I have ever rode....actually rode down the road in a semi :) Your eyes were wide the whole time ;)

After we did all that we went to Roseville to eat lunch. Roseville is a small farming town and we went to the bowling alley. All of us sat down, I guess everyone but you :) People who ate before us had left tip money on the table and you went to every table grabbed the money and took it to the waitress, she thought you were really cute, then later you went over to the bowling alley and chucked some balls down the alley...we all thought that was funny, them more than me but it was all fun for sure....

We got our bellies full and headed over to Dad's sister's house so Aunt Nancy and her daughter Katie could see us. Nancy is John's wife. We get there and you went into prime show off mode. You were running and showing everyone how fast you were and Aunt Nancy tried to give you a lil kitty. But I explained that kitty needed to stay with its bro's and sisters. You were cool with that.

You and lil John played and Katie and Nancy thought you reminded them of me always running and looking and showing off, they said you were so adorable. Over at lil Johns's house down the road, they wanted to show you their lambs. So we all got in the back of the pickup and went over there...But before we went Jeremy showed you how to take the corn off a cob and you thought was pretty cool. You did that a whole bunch the rest of the day... Below are the lambs, there were a bunch of em..they even had a donkey. One time this lamb farted...we all laughed they said they do it all the time :)

As we playing around we here this loud noise. Uncle Johnny says...Hey! That's Jase in the combine! Jeremy grab Brock run over to the road and stop Jase and put Brock in there, its dry enough to farm. So we got Jase stopped and you, me , lilJohn, and Jase are drivin down the road to the field to pick some corn. Dad jumped in with Uncle John and followed us there and we went to work.

After Jase got the GPS calculated in the combine computer to see where the highest yielded corn would be at field 12 and what the water content would be. We would be ready to go..I was really amazed at the technology they use for all this...they really have to watch, from what I learned, to make sure the the water content of the corn is not high because when they store it will rot quicker and be worthless. If they turn in wet corn they have to put it in a dryer and will get "docked" because drying corn costs money..which is never a good thing cause the farmer will lose money.

We sat around for a while and chatted before we could start, due to some sort of computer thing that was storing data inside the combine, thankfully Jeremy brought a few beers, sooooo ...we took picsYou are still workin hard on your corn. ;)

Now we get in the combine and start farming the corn...Dad is drivin the tractor that will take the corn after our combine gets filled. He then will take it to the semi and unload the corn and the semi will drive it to the sale.You were really enjoying yourself Brock and so was I....the last time I did this I was with my Grandpa probably in the 2nd grade...
We found a lady bug in the combine cabin..she was your buddy....but you let her go cause you are nice.

I was also really happy to be hanging out with my cousins. They are good and funny people..Everytime we get together we talk about the ole times and make some new ones. Uncle Johnny and I were talking and he told me a lot about corn. He mentioned that my grandpa Robbins would be amazed if he were to see how far along science has brought us a better corn. The type of corn growing now through technology without the use of pesticides, they have figured out how to make seeds that grow corn that insects and worms won't bother. He ripped up a stalk and showed me. Before it would be full of holes were worms or bugs would have gotten inside the stalk. Now they don't and the height of the stalk nowdays is much taller and more profitable. Jeremy sells corn seed and a lot of what we were pickin was his corn or from his company. As we were talking if an ear of corn would be on the ground he would pick it up and put it in his pocket...to give to his cows for candy later.
We were in the combine for about an hour and you wanted to go help Jeremy..So i let you out and you hung out with for a lil while, I was in the combine with Jase and I could see the two of you talking and picking up corn on the ground and drivin his truck....