Daddy's Fish BowlA Clear View Of A Father's Family Experiences

Boy oh boy, yesterday was an unusually tough one.  Well the work day was anyway, the stress level was at an all time high and the pressure was mounting.  I have a big important meeting today and had to ensure that the ENORMOUS amount of data that I had collected was all neat, accurate, and presentable.  That doesn’t sound all so bad, but when combined with 4 additional meetings, it gets a little more difficult to complete.  After getting everything complete and ensuring that I was ready for today’s meeting, I left work at almost 6pm.  Typically, I’m home by 5pm, 5:30 on a bad day.  So not leaving until 6 o’clock had me pretty wore out.  Once I got home, all I wanted was some peace and quiet, followed by relaxation.  Well, if you know my household, then you’re already aware that those wishes don’t get granted to often when the boys are around.  But for some reason, yesterday was different.  It was like they knew I had it rough and tried their best to take it easy on me.

When I got home, Tre greeted me at the door with his standard silly nature: a loud “DaDa” followed by a fiendish laugh.  After letting out his laugh, he ran around the living room 3 times while screaming “DaDa” and finally ended by coming to give me a hug.  Not bad for your first few moments home after a tough day.  Ty usually asks me how my day was, what did I do at work, and did my boss like my work.  Those are the high level questions, which can then branch off into any number of secondary and tertiary questions depending on my answers.  In any given day, I’ll get asked a hundred and one questions before I’ve had a chance to change clothes.  But yesterday was different; Ty kept it simple and asked only a hundred questions, okay okay, it was more like 10.  He really did a good job at keeping the banter down; I guess he sensed that my energy level wasn’t where it typically is.  Tre tried to pitch in as well, for some reason he has specific books that he likes for me to read and then books that he likes for Fefe to read to him.  The book that he loves for me to read to him is Pat Them Gently; it’s a pretty short book and we usually complete it in 2-3 minutes, which isn’t bad at all.  Not bad until the book gets read 20 times back to back. I mean seriously, I’ll get to the end of the book and say “the end”, he’ll politely flip it back to the beginning and say “readabook” can’t really deny a child’s request for reading now can you?  But yesterday he only requested that we “readabook” about 3 times and then he was off to play in his own little world.

I was totally beat after dinner, so we put “Happy Feet” on for the boys to watch.  This was a clever attempt to buy some quiet time in the house.  We all laid on a blanket on the floor and the plan worked, the kids were into the movie and I was able to relax.  I guess that my relaxation was feeling a bit too good because apparently, I drifted off to sleep and began snoring.  Fefe explained to me what happened next.  My snoring grew increasingly louder and I guess Tre began to get annoyed. A 21month old getting annoyed? Come on, give me a break.  Anyways, he says “DaDa” and makes the shhhhh noise, while putting his finger to his mouth.  Wow, are you serious? I got shhhhh’d by someone under the age of two?  That didn’t work, so a few moments later he got up from the blanket, grabbed one of his stuffed animals (a green frog, his favorite) and brought it over to me.  He put the frog next to my head and then he took the advice from his book and “patted me gently” on the forehead.  I don’t know if he cleared my nasal passage with that pat, maybe it wasn’t so gentle after all, but somehow I stopped snoring.  After I stopped, Tre began clapping; I guess he was proud that his plan got me to be quiet.

I woke up about two hours later holding a green frog, not even realizing that I had been sleep.  The boys were gone and Fefe was sitting next to me reading a book.  I asked her why in the world was I clinging to the frog and she explained what happened.  Feeling quite good about the treatment that I had received, I took the frog back to Tre who was now sleeping in his bed and returned the favor.  Afterwards, I sat back and thought about the compassion that my boys had shown me today and came to the realization that having kids is definitely worth it.  I mean, if they treat me this good now, it can only get better once I’m old and wrinkly and need someone to care for me. No retirement home for me! Lol, we’ll see how long this treatment lasts before I truly believe that statement.