Growing, Growing, Gone...

Today, my kid is a year and a half old. Wow. I would say the time has flown by, because it has, but then again it feels like my life has always been this way. Everything about being a dad feels normal and natural and I couldn’t imagine life any other way. This was not always the case...

Nope, whatever progress I’ve made in the being a parent department has come despite my kicking and screaming. After all, you don’t just wake up this refined, there were a few bumps along the way.

Not too long ago, I couldn’t handle toys strewn across the living room and down the hallway, screeching babies, or eating breakfast over the sink. I squimed at just the thought of changing diapers or washing butts. I was the guy who didn’t want to hold your baby.  

That guy is long gone. Today, I’m battle tested and ready. I've wiped away drool with my finger, gone to work only to find urp on my shirt, slobber and snot on my sleeves. I've been on the wrong end of a diaper change, and lived to type about it. Yes, I’d say I’ve come a long way.

When she was pregnant, I remember my wife trying to prep me for Dad duty, sneaking in little tidbits of information about what was ahead. Usually I’d just nod and laugh, telling her not to talk while Dexter was on while at the same time trying to hide the panic building in my thoughts. Dexter was scary, but having a kid was horrifying.

Those long, self-serving days, when I could only focus on one thing at a time, like shoveling food in my own mouth or watching television. Television. Good one, watching six or seven sitcoms druing the week. Six or seven! About the equivalent to how many minutes of tv we now watch over the course of an entire day now.

So my son’s not the only one growing here. It's a team effort. The other day I’d just gotten home from work and run the dogs around the woods and we were all in the kitchen. My wife had been doing some laminating job for school and there were shreds of paper all over the house. Simon and I sat on the floor, tossing the white strips of paper in the air and I watched him giggle and squeal as the streams of paper fell on his head.. And just in that little moment, I knew that everything I needed in the world was right there

Corny? Maybe, but honest. My life has changed so much in the past ten years, five years, and it was hurled into a different world a year and a half ago. But it's a world I like, and the best part is that it’s only getting better…