This is Miles.

If you’re just tuning in, this is my son, who will be three years old on Wednesday. That’s right – three years old.

Miles likes to do silly things.

Like put on sunglasses and tie elephants around his neck.

Or wear his daddy’s shoes.

Or put nets over his head.

But most of all, he loves to make silly faces with people.

As you can imagine, we love him a lot.

He’s worked really hard this year. He started out the year with his speech and other developmental areas delayed, and he’s had to work really hard – with the help of therapists – to get to where he is now: fully caught up in almost every area.

For his birthday, I’d love it if you could help us make it special. From now until Wednesday, I want him to be constantly smiling.

And how can you help him do that? By being silly with him. Upload a silly face for him to see, tag it with #MakeMilesSmile, and we’ll show it to him to keep him laughing up until his birthday.

You can upload your photo to Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest, and I’ll see it pretty easily as long as you use the #MakeMilesSmile hashtag. To make it easier, you can send it to me at @calebgardner, my username for all of those services.

If you do it on Facebook, just make sure to post it to my Timeline or this page’s Wall.

My goal is to have enough photos to populate a #MakeMilesSmile Pinterest board, where he can see all the silly faces at once. Like a tapestry of silly.

In case you still don’t understand, here’s a simple infographic:

So. Can you help us make this little guy the happiest little guy in the world on his third birthday? I’d really appreciate it.

Follow along with how we’re trying to make him smile here on Twitter. Thanks, guys.

The Texas-sized story behind this week’s photos:

• 1 & 2 - As you may recall, I just spent almost a week in Austin attending conferences – networking, learning stuff, hanging out with good friends, old and new. The weather was really crappy the first few days, but when it finally cleared up, it was beautiful and the city came alive.
• 3 – This being Texas, cowboys abounded. Whit Honea felt the need to challenge one to a dual at Dad 2.0 Summit. (He lost.) I learned a ton at Social Business Summit, met some great new contacts at SXSW, but Dad 2.0 Summit easily had my favorite people. And to see them all coming together to support the “dads aren’t idiots” motif was truly satisfying. (Congrats to the team for pulling it off.)
• 4 - Dad 2.0 ended with a bang, i.e. a collaborative party with the forces behind Kirtsy for the Girl+Guy Party. Two things: I’m always up for a party thrown by Laura Mayes (and you should be too), and I’m always up for hearing The Tontons (and you should be too).
• 5 - I can’t spend a week in Austin and not talk about the food. The food. THE FOOD. This particular photo pays homage to The Boiling Pot, where we got cajun sauce on our fingers while eating seafood that still had eyes to stare back at us. Good times.
• 6 - After a good but long week, it was nice to be able to come home to my favorite people in the world.

Side note: One thing not captured here is the enormity of a very serendipitous interaction between myself and a good friend on Tuesday night that led directly to a major step forward for one of my Life List items. Which one? You’ll have to wait and see.

SO much to tell you guys in the week to come. Stay tuned.

How was your week?

(And as always, if you feel like more photo goodness, you can follow me on Instagram – @calebgardner.)

The stories behind this week’s photos:

• 1 - If you’re reading this from the US, then you know that we celebrated a little holiday called Valentine’s Day this past week. A holiday that men everywhere detest because of the forced emotion it requires on a random calendar day. But no matter what you think of it, you’d have to be a d-bag to not at least do something nice for your significant other.
• 4 - The nice winter weather streak continues in Chicago. We basically haven’t had a real winter. I’m calling it an extended spring. It’s been so nice.
• 6 - But not as nice as California, which I recently traveled to for work. 70 degrees in the middle of winter? Now I see why so many of you (and you, and you, and you, and you) choose to live out there. Plus: mountains!
• 2 & 5 – Some of the most common views of Miles right now: stuffing his face with waffles (at all times of the day), and playing trains. Or stickers. Or stickers on trains. Or trains on stickers.
• 3 - Recently I sat in on two Edelman heavyweights, David Armano and Richard Edelman, talking about the recently released Trust Barometer. Yeah. The place I work does not suck.

As always, feel free to follow on Instagram (@calebgardner) for more in-the-moment photo love. How was your week?

Last week I briefly traveled to California for work. Although this winter in Chicago hasn’t been that bad, seeing what California’s winter was like (sunny, 70 degrees) made me realize something.

I’m ready for summer.

For some reason – probably the warmth – my trip reminded me of this photo set I’ve never shared with you guys. I took these when I was in Atlanta on business a few years ago. As I usually do when I’m in a new city, I took my camera on a mini walking tour.

Centennial Olympic Park is in the heart of downtown, and I stopped by there after visiting the CNN building. I got a burger in the park (which was quite good), stopped to eat it, and started nonchalantly watching these kids play in the Fountain of Rings.

Then I started to wish I could play with them. So much fun.

I also started getting kind of obsessed with the water itself. Someone put a lot of thought into the timing of the fountain; how each spout would create something beautiful and unexpected that park goers would enjoy.

There’s a moment where the water has reached the highest point it will go, right before it’s about to come back down. The climax. The apex. I must have spent 20 minutes trying to capture it.

The results look like little ice sculptures, as if they had frozen on the spot and would never make their way back down. Their summer never had to be over.

And then eventually I figured I looked like a creep taking photos of other people’s kids in the middle of the park. So I walked back to my hotel, desperately missing both my own childhood and my son.

Looking forward to this summer so he can have more of these moments.

The stories behind this week’s photos:

• 1 & 4  - This Chicago winter remains unpredictable. Last Friday it was snowing so heavily they let us out early to head home. Then this week it’s been nice enough for me to take some unscheduled walks outside in Millennium Park. Not complaining though. I really value the time to get some fresh air and clear my head.
• 2 & 5 - Remember when I said I was going to start getting up at ridiculously early hours in order to get stuff done? And then I told you about my strategic planning? Yeah. My productivity has been on fire lately. It’s amazing how much more confident and in control you feel when you take control of your time.
• 3 & 6 - At home, I’m making slow but steady strides toward learning how to cook, gradually gaining confidence in the kitchen. It’s slow going, given my limited time during the week. I’m also, as you can see, playing a serious amount of cars lately.

As always, you can follow me on Instagram (@calebgardner) for stories in real-time.

How was your week?

The story behind this week’s photos:

• 1 & 4  - Winter has officially arrived in Chicago, but I’m not complaining since it was so mild up until now. Give me a few weeks…
• 2 & 5 - I picked up guitar last weekend again for the first time in a while. It felt good – although my fingertips were not happy with me. When Miles saw me doing it, he wanted to get out his little guitar that his grandparents gave him and play along with me. His imitating of me is always fun, but also kind of scary, since it’s only going to grow.
• 3 - Our new floor at Edelman continues to get finalized, including our new Food Room. Kind of crazy how well stocked it is.
• 6 – Love this shot. Took this when we stopped by Gene’s Sausage Shop, a sweet little grocery and delicatessen in Lincoln Square. They also have a rooftop beer garden with amazing bratwursts.

As always, follow me on Instagram for more photo goodness.

How was your week?

One of the benefits of escaping big city life to visit my parents in Oklahoma is the wildlife. Adjacent to my hometown is a big refuge and mountain range, filled with buffalo, longhorns, and other endangered species. We also have a few friends with farms, so the last two holiday seasons we’ve taken Miles to see some horses.

He’s going through a big animals phase right now. All of his favorite books to read are animal-related, and his favorite toys are little animal figurines. We try to satisfy his cravings for all-things wildlife here in Chicago to the best of our abilities, like taking him to Lincoln Park Zoo (even in the dead of winter). But there is obviously only so much we can do.

I really want nature to be something he looks forward to when he visits Oklahoma. It’s definitely something I took for granted growing up there, and it’s one of the things that will contrast the greatest with growing up in a big city. The prairies offer up such unique experiences (including Rattlesnake Festivals – it’s a thing).

I want Miles to own his heritage, just as I’m learning to own it myself. My wife makes fun of me because one of my dreams is to one day own a working ranch (proof). I think that may be part of me trying to recapture my heritage just a bit. Maybe Miles and I can do it together.

We’ve carried on the horse tradition for the past two winters, and it’s amazing to see the contrast between the Miles of 2010 and the Miles of 2011. The contrast is made even more stark considering that this year we went to see a group of miniature horses that my sister keeps. They make Miles look even more like the little boy he’s quickly becoming.

Here’s hoping me and that little boy have many more wildlife adventures to come.

The story behind this week’s photos:

• Photos 1 & 2 – Edelman Digital Chicago packed up and moved floors – from 63 to 66 in the AON Center. Our new floor is pretty slick – a modern, open floor plan, new kitchen with a ton of food, and cool meeting spaces. I’ll probably have more photos of it coming soon.
• Photos 4 & 5 – Miles got pretty sick this week, with his fever at one point going up to 103. A few restless nights for him (which meant a few sleepless nights for us). I stayed home with him a couple of days until he got better. It was a rough couple of days, but he was in good spirits for most of it.
• Photos 3 & 6 – Only in Chicago can it go from 50 degrees one day to a blizzard the next.

For more photos on-the-go, you can always follow me on Instagram.

How was your week?

… at least, for little kids it still is. It’s been so fun sharing that experience all over again with Miles this year.

How’s your season going?