A little snap shot from our household

I had not posted on my blog in a long while and I thought I would share what my life this last Tuesday looked like. But this is NOT about the chaos of teaching incoming Freshman Pre-Calculus students in a semester when the math department is implementing new software; although that did take up pretty much most of that day. What I wanted to tell you about was the pocket of time during the late afternoon and early evening I spent with my wife and daughter. A little time to not think about grades or software or lesson plans. Tuesday was Rachel’s original due date. So there are very few days left that we are going to be just a family of three. After I was done teaching we decided to go to the park. Rachel had found online that there is this big park on the North East side of town. Here is a picture.

This park is themed around two of Aleah’s favorite things, butterflies and curly slides. Now she is not yet two and a half. So although there were a couple slides that she went down by herself, most of the others were too big. She went down one of those on my lap. It was really exciting for her. The funny thing is when at home she often is bouncing off the walls. But the moment we reach a big park where she can run around, she is kind of memorized. She did running around some of the time, but she mostly stood still watching the other kids.

After playing we went to Culvers for supper. There is nothing like greasy burgers and ice cream. This seemed to be the point when Aleah’s energy came back. I wonder if subconsciously Aleah is thinking, “Running at the playground isn’t fun, because I am allowed to run there. But running in a restaurant, now THAT is fun.” So she was bouncing in our booth, out of our booth, over our booth and nowhere near our booth. I was nominated to sit next to her in light of the fact that I’m not growing a human in my uterus.

Then this happened. She was bouncing around on the seat next to me. I put my arm around her to tell her to settle down a little. She bounced right on to my lap, arms wrapped tight around my neck. I really am not sure how long we sat there; I would guess maybe 3 or 4 minutes. I sat there, just holding her while Rachel ate her meal. The only real breaks were when she would sit up to smile at me, and then she would flop her head back over my shoulder. Since the school year started last week I have been around a lot less. And when I have been around I have often been distracted with grading quizzes and such. But here in Culvers she had my undivided attention.

There are times when Fatherhood can overwhelm me. It almost seems like an impossible task. Then add the fact that I grew up in a family of all boys. And I think it is well documented that females tend to be more complicated than males. The complication level is about to increase with another little girl arriving any day.

But in this moment with my little one on my lap things seemed to come in to perspective. Yes, there are complicated and confusing things on the horizon. There will be moments when I say “How can I attempt to deal with these girls?” But at the same time, there are important things that I can provide; things I can provide in abundance. There are three that come to mind. Three things that, at the drop of a hat, at a moment’s notice, I can say “Sugar I’ve got this one.”

1) Daddy will you dance with me.
2) Daddy will you hug me.
3) Daddy will you pray with me.

Are those three things enough? I have no delusions that they are. There complications that I can’t begin to fathom. But there will be moments when one or more of these three things is exactly what my daughters need. And that’s a really good place to start.

Thanks’ for reading my blog. I hope to post again soon, maybe less than 18 months.