Spring 2018

I'm just going to skip right over the part where I talk about how I just don't have time to post, because I think it is going to be a feature of the next 15-20 years, and I don't want everyone to get sick of it.  So...

It's been a while. A lot has happened, and by a lot, i mean a lot!!! So much that I have not had time... whoops. This isn't easy.

We are at the point now where Harry is 3 1/2, going on 4, and Rachel is almost 19 months!  Harry is still being Harry, with his craziness and energy, and Rachel is quickly becoming herself.  We just got word that Rachel is now the bully of the 12-18 month class at Goddard.  Apparently she has been tackling the other kids, and she laughs every time she does it.  And apparently, it's not that popular with her classmates.

Harry is growing as well, although we've hit a bit of a snag lately. He still wants to be independent most of the time, but now that he sees the attention Rachel gets for being the baby, he's been backsliding just a bit.  He's also as rotten as can be:

He was going to spend the night at Mamaw & Papaw's the other night, and we had this conversation:

Me: Harry, I sure am going to miss you while you're gone.
Harry: Daddy, I'm not going to miss you!!!
Me: You don't think you'll miss me at all?
Harry: No. I'll be at Mamaw & Papaw's.

So the next day he comes home, and the whole thing is repeated:

Me: Harry, I really missed you while you were gone!
Harry: Really?  I didn't miss you.

At this point I was feeling really great about myself and my fathering abilities.  Luckily, I finally got what I was looking for when I put him to bed that night:

Me: Good night good night good night!!! Love you love you love you!!!!
Harry: Dad?
Me (thinking he was just stalling): Yes, Harry, what is it?
Harry: I really did miss you while I was at Mamaw & Papaw's.
Me (with dust getting in my eyes): I missed you, too, buddy.

Spanish lessons

So having put Rachel to bed, I am sitting on the couch waiting for Mom to come down so we can watch some TV together, when I get a text asking me to come upstairs right away.  I go upstairs, walk into Harry's room and I see Mom standing there, and Harry on the bed crying hysterically for "Daddy!!!".

I asked Harry what was wrong, and he says he can't sleep in his bed because it's not "comfy".  I look at Mom with a "what on earth is he talking about?" look, and she instantly returns a gaze of "I have no idea".

So I ask Harry, "Can you explain to me what you mean?  I don't know what you mean by 'comfy'."

Harry looks up at me, tears in his eyes, and says, "I know you don't know what 'comfy' means, Daddy, it's Spanish and you don't understand Spanish!!!"

Huh.

So I try to get to the bottom of this language difficulty, and it turns out that Harry has decided that he wants the footboard of his bed to be as tall as the headboard, which will apparently make the bed "comfy".

I have absolutely no clue where he got the idea that they should be the same height, and I even had to take him into our room to show him that the footboard on Mom and Dad's bed was short, too.  He said he thought we needed a taller footboard, too.

Mother's Day

Mom's new love right now is a website that sells shirts for moms with rap lyrics on them.  This year for Mother's Day she said that the only thing she wanted was one of those shirts.  So being the dutiful dad, I went to the site and bought one.

So on actual Mother's Day, we were talking about the shirt, and suddenly Harry chimes in and tells Mom, "I bought that shirt for you, Mama."

I thought that was pretty funny, so I asked a few questions that night at bedtime.

Dad: Harry, did you buy that shirt for Mama?

Harry: Yes.

Dad: Where did you get it?

Harry: Well, first I looked on my phone, but then I went to... (thinking really hard at this point, then has an epiphany) ... MACY'S!!!

Dad: (Laughing) Really?  How did you get there?

Harry: I drove Daddy's car.  I have keys.

And so begins the portion of parenting that consists of your kids making up stories... I think I'm going to love it!!!

Exhaustion

One of the things about parenting that no one adequately warned me about is the level of exhaustion that becomes normal. It is utterly insane how tired I am all the time now, and how normal it seems, when just a few short years ago I was sleeping for entire nights and feeling awake all day long.

When you're single, or married without kids, there are times when you feel exhausted, no doubt.  Looking back, I can remember times when I thought that I was so exhausted I couldn't even think straight. Most of those times were due to staying out late, or every once in a while actually being sick. But for the most part, they were voluntary.

And that's where one of the big differences is. When you become a parent, the job is on all the time, no down time. If you go out late one night, your kid does
not care, and will still be up at 6AM or whatever time they usually get up. So when you're out, you always have that in the back of your head, that no matter what happens, you will have to get out of bed at a crazy early hour.

But the biggest difference, and the one that either no one told me about or I just wasn't smart enough to figure out myself, is that there is no time to "catch up" on sleep. Before, if I stayed out too late, or was sick for a couple of days, or whatever I did that made me exhausted, the solution was to lay around for a day or two, maybe get 12 or so hours of sleep in a day, and come out refreshed.  That just NEVER happens anymore, again due to the 24/7 time commitment of being a parent.

Throw in the fact that I just broke a couple of ribs, and let's just say that my current "normal" is to get about 3-4 hours of sleep per night. Which leaves me in a constant state of half-asleep, half-awake half-consciousness.  It's not fun.

But then, it is, isn't it??!!

Just One Dark

I woke Harry up for school the other day, and he was having his usual hard time coming around. I finally got him out of bed and took him to the changing table in Rachel's room, like usual. He started asking his thousand questions, as usual, mostly about playing baseball outside.

The conversation went something like this:

Harry:  Daddy, is it too dark outside to play baseball right now?

Dad:  Yes, Harry, it is too dark to play baseball.

Harry:  It is very dark out, isn't it, Daddy?

I looked out the window at this point, and noticed that it really wasn't that dark, the sun had just started to come up.

Dad:  No, Harry, it's not too dark.

Harry gave me that look that told me the wheels were spinning, he was really thinking about something.

Harry:  Is it just only one dark, Daddy?

OSU Spring Game

This past Saturday, the entire family went to the Ohio State Spring Game. It was an absolute blast.  Harry was absolutely on cloud nine the entire time, both watching the game and playing with all of the Schroeder kids.

We went up with most of the Schroeders (Aunt Angie, Margaret, John and Mary), Granny and Pop, as well as a whole bunch of Schroeder cousins. We tailgated near the stadium, then walked over as the game was starting. Unfortunately for your mom, there was no flyover.

Rachel had a good time as well, despite us forgetting a) sunblock and b) a hat. We will not be winning parents of the year anytime soon.

I would say this could definitely become a family tradition. It had a lot of the fun of an OSU game, but with a much more laid back atmosphere. We'll just have to see if Mom's Nebraska background can deal with going to OSU games on a regular basis...

Second Kid Syndrome

Being a second kid myself, I know a little bit about being overlooked.  Luckily for me, and Rachel, I was not the middle child.  I got to keep the "baby" label throughout my childhood, which honestly was not the worst thing in the world. But since I'm just starting my blog, I figured a post about Rachel to start off would be a good thing.

I do worry about it though.  At this point, Harry is 2 1/2 years old, and he is funny, interesting, and just generally fun to be around.  Rachel is 6 months old, the sum total of her talents is smiling and kicking.  It's not that I don't love her, it's just that Harry is so much more interesting right now.

Starting Out

I started out with the best of intentions, created an email address and sent a few emails, but time gets away, and now here we are over two and a half years later, and it’s just sad the amount that I’ve written about what now would be the TWO most important things in my life.  So I’m going to try to rectify the situation.  We’ll see how it goes.

I'm pretty sure that I don't have any special insights into this fatherhood thing, at least not any more than anyone else. I'd just like to write some of these things down, because while I know I'll remember the big moments, I'm afraid I'll forget all the little ones, like when Harry scored a goal at school the other day and a week later, still hasn't stopped talking about it. Or that Rachel, after being a difficult baby who, let's face it, didn't like old Dad too much for a while, is now the sweetest baby ever, who smiles every time I look at her.

I'd also like for the two of them to have something to look back on from their time growing up. Like I said, we'll see how it goes...