Olivia:  I suspect your parents Kirra and Milo will have some sort of baby book that captures who the President of the US is and other factoids about the date you decided to join all of us, but I wanted you to hear in my own words what your date of birth was like and what’s going on in the world.  I am writing this just an hour or so after your birth while waiting in the nursery to visit your mother.

Your Birth

You are certainly a strong, confident and determined girl.  Your mother entered the hospital Monday evening September 14th but you weren’t born until about 7:45 in the morning Thursday the 17th, which is roughly 9 days after your “calculated” due date by the doctors.  We all operated on Olivia time, which tested your mother’s patience/resolve and also brought the members of the extended Daugherty and Greye family even closer together.

Present for the festivities were your aunts Kayla, Meagan and Skie, your grandparents Kelly (Mimi), Montana (Grandmère), Chase Sr. and yours truly (Grandpa Gordon), and your great grandmother Veronique (Montana’s mother).  While your mother was in the delivery room, she was also visited by your father’s very close friend Kenny and his cousin Allan, and your aunt Kayla’s fiancé Rex (they will get married in late November this year and Rex will become your uncle).

Your great grandparents on my side (Toni and C. Gordon Daugherty III) received word of your birth within minutes of it happening and were extremely excited.  Your great grandmother Toni Daugherty could not make it to the hospital because of her Multiple Sclerosis condition but she cried when she learned of your birth.

You weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces and were 21 inches long.

Your Parents

Your mother works in sales operations at a very fast growing technology company named WP Engine.  She has been there for more than 1 year and works very hard to learn more about her trade and advance herself professionally.

Your father works for the Austin Convention and Visitor’s Bureau where he is responsible for bringing big conventions of all types to town.  Austin is one of the most successful and fastest growing cities in the country, which makes your father’s job really exciting.

Your parents moved in with me and Mimi a month ago because they are saving their money to buy their first house where you can have a backyard and the other goodies that come from home ownership.  We love having them with us and are looking forward to spending close time with you until your house is found.

Your Grandparents Mimi and Grandpa Gordon

Since your aunt Meagan went to college a little more than a year ago, we have been empty nesters learning how to adjust to not having children in the house that we are responsible for raising.  We love going to the beach house we bought in Galveston about 5 years ago and really look forward to spending time there with you.  We call it the “Surf Shack” because your Mimi was a very good competitive surfer when she was younger.  We obviously don’t know if you’ll become a surfer, sailor or avid seashell collector but we are certain that some of your favorite activities and traditions will happen at the Surf Shack.

After a 28 year carrier in high tech, I now spend most of my days helping tech startups be successful.  I run a startup accelerator in Austin called Capital Factory that is really big and where most of the best tech startups hang out and work.  I also have a startup advisory blog called Shockwave Innovations where I love writing articles to help startups.

Your Mimi has been taking art classes for about 1 year and is really getting good with her paintings.  If you see a painted mural on the wall in the upstairs guest bedroom of our beach house, that is currently being planned by your Mimi.  I think it’s going to be great.  She also loves to spend time in our backyard garden in Austin and doing just about anything at the Surf Shack (working in the yard, walking on the beach, surfing the waves, watching sunsets/moon rises, etc).

The World Around You

The United States went through a very bad economic recession about 7 years ago and it lasted so long that it is being labeled “The Great Recession”.  But by now the economy has mostly recovered and things are much better.  Next year is a Presidential election year and we are just close enough to it to be going crazy with all of the political adds and typical “fighting” between the candidates.  Our current President Barack Obama will pass the torch to a new President a little more than 1 year from now and by the time you read this you’ll obviously know who that is.  In fact, it is possible that we will gain our first female president because former First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is leading the polls on the Democrat side while a business veteran named Carly Fiorina is a contender on the Republican side.

The world is still very concerned about the spread of terrorism, which mostly exists in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia but Americans worry that we might get attacked again someday on our homeland like on September 11, 2001.  We all hope that by the time you are a teenager (and hopefully sooner), this threat will be much less and something you don’t worry about too much yourself.

The technology revolution continues at a pace that seems to never end.  Some of the hot technologies this year and expected for the near future include the following:

• Wearables – Devices you wear on your body that either connect you to the Internet or apps on your smartphone.  Google has a product called Glass that is a pair of glasses that have a heads-up display and we are all wondering if in the future people will really go around with such glasses.  Watches and fitness-oriented wristbands are also getting a little popularity with early adopters of wearable technology.
• Electric Cars – They have been around for about 10 years but still only command less than 1% of all cars purchased.  But the growth rate is high and surely this trend will continue unless some other propulsion technology like Hydrogen turns out to be better.  I can’t wait to see what type of car you drive when you turn 16.
• Driverless Cars – This is still very much in the prototype testing phase but Google is really threatening the industry by being the first to push really hard into this area.
• Internet of Things (IoT) – Everything from home thermostats to refrigerators to cars is being connected to the Internet.  Not very many people have IoT devices but it is very clear that by the time you are 10 years old, you will just expect to be able to control any appliance or device through your smartphone.
• Drones – These are mostly used for recreational purposes or very specific commercial purposes like videography but it seems possible that by the time you are a teenager we might all be used to seeing unmanned drones flying across the sky for all sorts of things, including home deliveries.

I hope you find this information interesting someday and I look forward to playing with you, teaching you things and growing older with you.

Love,

Grandpa Gordon