Category Archives: Parenting
Oh I’m Sorry
Son, it has been a while since I shared a story with you. You have been learning so quickly that is difficult to keep up. Yesterday though you just did something so dang cute that I have to share this memory! You ran up to Anna (our new puppy) as she was sleeping against the wall to look out the window. You proceeded to say “I am sorry Anna!”
Now whether you meant it when you said you were sorry or not I have no idea. My guess is that you did mean it, you tell Anna you love her all the time. You give her giant bear hugs and kisses before bed. You want to play with her so badly that you get just a bit to rough and she ends up running away.
None of this is your fault, you are still learning how to play with Anna. We adopted her because you needed a play pal and I am confident she will become that for you. Until then I will continue to help you play with her so she knows that you won’t hurt her.
You have learned when to say “I am sorry” which is a trait that your mother and I appreciate. You are not acting out in a malicious way, you are just being a two and a half-year old.
I love you,
Dad
Tough Love
Son, it is time for some tough love. We are a week into the third round of the toddler bed. Before your mother and me did not have the energy to fully invest ourselves into getting you to stay asleep in your room. You would come crawl into bed with us, kicking me in the back, sleeping horizontal pushing me off the side of the bed knocking me out cold as I hit the corner of my nightstand. It’s all find and dandy for your bed but when you don’t push me out of bed you wake me up.
Mom and dad need their sleep and so do you. So we are laying down the law, we will be closing your door and letting you cry it out. Sounds cruel but we are doing it, the book that your pediatrician suggested. Remember you hate him not us, he is the one who is sticking you with needles!
We do not want to do this as much as you do not want the feelings of abandonment. Rest assured though, we are there for you, across the house and dead asleep, but we are there. It will take some time getting used to. I am sure that it will take a couple of days of screaming bloody murder right by your door and possibly going to sleep right by the door. Another piece of advice son, if you can just stay in bed, when your mother and I walk into your room we might hit you in the head, which would make things worse.
Someday you will understand that sleeping is one of the greatest joy’s a person can have in life. You will feel recharged full of energy and ready to throw snowballs at daddy…
© The Rookie Dad
We love you son, we are not trying to be cruel or punish you. This is only for the greater good trust us! You may hate us for a couple of days but after that you will be fine I am sure, after you tell us about all of your new friends that you will be meeting at your new day-care. We just don’t want you going to day-care looking like this…
© The Rookie Dad
Always Believe
Son, this piece of advice that I am going to give you is something that I wish I had done when I was younger, yet I know that later it will come back to bite me in the butt.
Santa is real.
You have just started recognizing who this strange man is. You know that he has a white beard and is round plump belly. You point out all of the Christmas items we have in the house that are of Santa.
When you believe, Christmas means so much more to you. Not only that but you get more presents, something that you are just now going to learning about but Christmas carry’s a whole new meaning. The Christmas lights shine brighter (wait till your older son and all you will see is your electric bill rising because of them), the presents under the tree seem bigger, the egg nog tastes alittle bit more eggier.
That son, is why you want to always believe. I wish I did.
I Guess I’m Not That Old
Lately son, I have felt like an old fart. Let’s be honest here, to you, I probably am. With a birthday this past week it is just making me feel older. A feeling I do not want to have.
As a teenager, there were many nights I would stay up late and sleep on the floor. Wake up the next morning and not feel a thing.
However, with my “old” feeling something told me that I would feel this the night I slept on your floor. Why was I sleeping on your floor? Well you were sick and needed the comfort of either mother or father. It ended up being me, your mother was sick as well.
I stayed up till midnight to check on your fever. It was not down so I gave you some medicine to help. The funny thing is, you can’t give medicine to someone who sleeps on their tummy as you do. Not only that, but you sleep on your tummy with your butt up in the air. A word of advice, attempting to turn a sleeping toddler over to their backs while they are sleeping is never a good idea. Just something to remember when you have children.
As I turned you over I gave you the medicine. I could have sworn you went back to sleep so I went back out to the living room to finish my chapter in the book that I was reading. Next thing I know, I see you walking to me from your room. Being the loving and caring dad that I am, I picked you up and started to rock you back to sleep. You were so heavy and exhausted, I pretty much couldn’t move.
After a while, I work up the courage to put you back into your bed. I make it there and successfully get you in bed and back to sleep. I crawl into my bed and the drool doesn’t even get a chance to hit my pillow when I hear you wake up again. I walk over to your room taking a blanket with me and a pillow. The moment I walk in you are all better and lay down quietly.
Now, you were not asleep so I laid down on your floor thinking I might get some sleep this way too. I was right! Not sure why but it wasn’t half bad sleep either.
You wake up again around 5am and crawl out of bed and next to me sleeping on the floor. I was very thankful that you were not a wiggle worm so that I could sleep.
8AM hits and your mother walks in the room (she slept 11 hours and feels very refreshed and better) and sees me sleeping on the floor with you next to me. I can only imagine the sweet image that she saw in her head as she walked in on the two of us sleeping. The closer she walks to us, you wake up and start immediately asking for breakfast. I wake up as well, expecting pain but that was not the case. I felt refreshed! In fact I felt so good that I thought that I could take on the day without coffee, I did not though, I maybe stupid but I’m not that stupid.
Sleeping on the floor brought be back to my youth. It was just what I needed to get out of this slump of feeling older. Son, I have you to thank for letting me feel young again. So I thank you. I just hope you don’t feel like you are losing out on your youth with your birthday tomorrow!
Surprise, It’s A Boy!
Have I told you the story about your mothers pregnancy son? Your birthday is coming up so why not tell you a birth story right? I won’t tell you all about it because I am sure that your mother would choke me to death if I told you here. There is one minor detail that changed the outcome though. To get there I must tell you a few parts of the story.
Your mother and I at first didn’t even know you were even around. Yup, that’s right, for 8 weeks in the beginning of the pregnancy, you were not even though in our heads. We were in the middle of a bathroom renovation. It was not until your mother went to the doctor, just to rule out the idea of her being pregnant, that we realized we were about to have a baby.
There are some myths around for pregnant women to find out the sex of their child without the ultrasound. Well, some of those test pointed to you being a girl. In fact, so many of them pointed that way, that even our doctor thought you would be too!
We were so sure that we were having a girl, that we had already picked out names, ruling out any boys name. It was not until the day of the ultrasound to find out if you were a boy or girl that we even thought about a boy’s name. On the car ride to the doctor we picked out a name, knowing in the back of our heads that more than likely our efforts were a lost cause.
The sonogram tech did her first tests to make sure that everything was developing along, which to our relief it was. She then asked…
Do you want to know if it is a boy or a girl because it is pretty obvious?
Of course we did! She pointed to the screen and said,
You see that right there?
It was small but we could.
© The Rookie Dad
It’s a boy!
From that moment, I dreamed of playing baseball with you, teaching you to fish, playing in the mud, coaching you, and loving that I have a son.
