love

Quality Time

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I find myself amazed at the minds of children from time to time. If you have kids, you know that every once and a while they just come out with stuff that makes you laugh, cry, or just think about life.

One thing I really work hard on is spending equal amounts of time with each of my kids. This is time away from the taxiing I do all week long to their extra-curriculars. This week I took two of them out.

Spending quality time together doesn’t mean we spent hours and hours together, or to sit down and had a huge heart to heart, but what it means to me is just being together, and being real.

So, this week Charlotte and I were out and about. We had a few stops to make, and while we were driving from one spot to another Charlotte (sitting in the 3rd row of the van) comes out and says “Dad, I’m so happy we are bonding”. I chuckled, and of course agreed. As we continued in and out of stores we talked about school, family, and just giggled about silly things. This is quality time to me.

My eldest and I also spent some time this week and that experience was completely different. She will be 12 this year, granted not for a while yet, but this year. One of the things that has happened recently is that she acquired a taste for coffee, which I don’t entirely agree with. We have allowed her to have decaf coffee on occasion, and while we were heading to the mall I asked if she’d like to have a coffee with me. Her answer was emphatically YES! When we arrived at the mall we went directly to StarBucks and we eat got an Americano, hers decaf with 2 sugars and mine leaded, black. Walking through the mall, browsing in various stores I noticed something, a swagger. I noticed the sense of “Look at me, I’m older, I’m mature, I have a coffee”. We talked about life, graduating elementary school, and activities she is involved in. Then it happened, we walked by a dress shop that had (high school) graduation gowns in the display. We HAD to go in. Next thing I know we are looking at dresses, and I’m being shown looks that she wants and dresses she believes she’d look good in. I won’t lie, I was overwhelmed. As a father I am not ready for my little girl to be growing up, changing, becoming a woman. It was a strange flood of emotion that came over me. It’s the pride you feel as you watch your child grow, make decisions and start to become her own person, and yet it’s laced with sadness knowing that this little person who you are charged with protecting, guiding and teaching is growing up and won’t require that part of you. I know what you’re all going to say, and yes I know I will always be there to do all those things, but it’s different when they’re little.

Well, I think I’ve blabbed on enough for this post.

The adventure continues…

Has it really been 5 years???

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Have you ever wanted to do something, but found yourself never able to do it because of lack of time?

Take this blog for example, I was going to make it my goal to blog away my life and share the infinite knowledge I’ve accumulated over the years, and today I got a summary of page news and realized it’s been years since I’ve updated it.

The last time I had anything to say I had 2 children, and now I have 5. That’s correct ladies and gentlemen, 5 children.

It’s hard to imagine my life 11 years ago. Sitting with my wife in the doctor’s office being told, you have a 6% chance of conception, only to turn around 11 years later and have 5 children. We are truly blessed. I have 4 beautiful daughters and my number 5, a strapping young son.

Not much has changed in our household since 2021. I’d like to think I’ve become a better father, and husband but I can’t be the judge of that.

Let’s see… How to summarize the past 5 years…

  • We had 2 more girls.

This is one of my most favorite shots of my girls. The photographer is a long time friend who absolutely captured them perfectly

  • We had a son
  • We were gifted a trailer (camper)
  • We celebrated (including this current year) 22 years of marriage (the year isn’t over yet though lol)
  • I celebrated 27 years at Bell Canada (mind blown)
  • I’m nearing my 50th birthday, and as my daughters like to remind me, “Dad, you’re halfway to 100.”

I’m sure there is so much more to talk about, but let’s start there. Baby steps getting back into the bloglife.

As I said, I enjoy writing and sharing, and it’s not for lack of anything, but at the end of the day, I end up on the couch and I go into shutdown mode.

The adventure continues…

Bed Time Success

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For a while now I’ve joked with new dad friends, that I’ve ruined my child when it comes to bed time. As each parent does, I have a special connection with Eve and have always been able to knock her out when it came to bed time. Maybe it’s because I’m fat and have a round, cooshee belly, or it’s the immense heat that I produce. Who knows, it’s our thing though. So, as she’s been growing up my philosophy is simple, “If it works, why change it?”

Well, now that Eve is inching up to 2 1/2 years old it would be nice to say “It’s bed time” and put her down and leave the room.

Tonight, it happened! Mommy left Daddy in charge 😛 and so we did a little Sophia the First and then headed up to bed. At first Eve was NOT having it, but after a short discussion we made it upstairs. We got into our PJs, had our puffer, brushed out teeth, said our prayers, grabbed bunny and assumed the position.

I rocked her for about 10 minutes and all she did the entire time was play with my beard. So, I said to myself…”Enough is enough” I slowly stood up, made my way over to the crib, laid her down and softly said, “Good night, I love you”. She softly replied “I love you too dadda, don’t close door”

Ok dads, I don’t care what you say, that kills me every time. I will always remember back to when Eve first started to speak, I said to my brother in law “I love when she says dadda” He told me quickly, just wait until your kids say I love you. Eve has become a little parrot, as most kids do, and when I say I love you I get various responses back “I love you”, or “I love you too” or the best (my wife and I have been saying this to each other for 15 years) “I love you more”

All that to say, I stood over her crib and welled up as her little voice told me she loved me too, waited a second and slowly walked out, leaving the door open as requested. I never heard a peep, movement, nothing. 10 minutes later, turned on the video monitor and she is fast asleep. SCORE!!! YES!!!

That’s pretty much it for me today. It’s been a long week and I’m excited to get back to work. I just felt like blogging about my small victory, and the hope that maybe I haven’t messed my daughter up that badly 😛 LOL… Parenting is an adventure, and I’m sure sure who is learning more form who. Kids are so smart, and so honest and there is something to that. I feel like that gets lost so quickly, and aren’t we called to have a “Childlike faith”.

All of a sudden I feel a sermon coming on, so I’m cutting it off there.

The adventure continues….