Tuesday, August 2, 2011

A guest post - from daddy (post paddy days)



hello.  it's pete here. yes, hubby of kim, and the da to mr. little rorykins (his new official name as of today).

for the past 9 weeks i've wanted to write here.  somehow, amid the diapers, meal planning and cooking, walks, laundry, classes, cleaning, bike rides,......and plenty of playing...i couldn't find the time.  i'm sure many of you reading know what it's like.  maybe it's odd that i find time after my first day back to work, a day where rory was sick and couldn't go to his first full day of daycare, but here we are.

these last weeks have been the wonder of a lifetime.  i wouldn't change much about them.  after my first day with the boyo, i told kim I was ready to become a stay-at-home da. the second day, well, i was ready to head back to work early.  it did not go so well. 

day four i also remember being difficult, but i started to learn  from rory....it was late in the day and i was stressed, trying to get something done in the kitchen while rory played in the adjoining room. i stopped whatever i was doing and listened for the slap slapping of rory's crawling hands.  i heard nothing.  nervously i leaned back and looked through the doorway to make sure he wasn't climbing the stairs.  he wasn't. phew.  but where was he????  I took another couple of steps back to look down the length of the house. what could he be doing so quietly???   there he was, one hand on the bench seat, dancing away to the music.  i think I heard him say everything's ok da, just calm the flip down.  lesson learned.

or what about the time where i gave rory a bag of j-cloths to hold on to at the grocery store? he kept dropping them, and on one drop the bag landed right at my feet. I kicked it lightly before i could avoid it....and then it entered the loblaw's triangle.  no, really. it wasn't under the cart, ahead of us, behind us.  i even got down and started looking underneath the shelves.  nowhere.  by the bye, i highly recommend that you never look under the shelves at your grocery store. eez no nice.  anyway, we were forced to turn back to the j-cloth aisle, where lucky for us there was *one* bag left. it was good that it was during the day, and quiet....i don't think that anyone saw my comical search efforts.

there were so many hilarious, lovely, inspiring moments that i think of on my leave. rory taking his first couple of steps; playing with the kids next door, and rory being fascinated with our other neighbours' hanging flower pot; his first ride on the bike; hearing him slapping his hand on his thigh to the music in the car; how he would always lean on the tree in the front yard and smile at strangers passing by; going through the car wash and hoping he wouldn't wake up and think it was a nightmare; and most of all....how overjoyed rory would be to see his ma come through the door every day.  and hey, who could blame him?  she did such a magnificent job with him for all those months, it's no wonder he was delighted.  she really did set me up for success with the oul' paddy daddy leave. ;)

here are a few picks from the 1200+ photos i took over the last 2 months. (my annual photo average over the past 15 years is probably about 8).

thank you rory and kim for the most wonderful journey, and for all those to come. i love you two. xoxoxo

pete.












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