Skip to main content

Off Kilter

The long hours are catching up ... "stir crazy," loss of focus, ... of memory. Having just survived THREE DAYS as a father by myself ... yes, I know, some kind of record or something, right?

For some reason, the Christmas-tale, "Twas The Night Before Christmas" has been ringing through my mind.

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

 What I would have given for that extra bit of sleep. I definitely appreciate everything Jen does for me and I certainly hope that I extend the same amount of effort to her.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hoped that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

On top of caring for Patrick, I had a death at work to deal with ... a close, personal friend is now watching out for my son and his son (on the way). In the back of my mind has been a constant fear ... a clarion bell that I only managed to keep silent through herculean effort. This monologue of things to do, things done, and juggling ... "what can be done tomorrow, on top of everything else."

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.

 He did sleep ... some well planned road-time knocked him out. Although this was after hours of wrangling, wrestling, and nail-biting on my part.

And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap.

 I wish Mama had been around ... I hit the bed and crashed, hoping to sleep to the alarm. We did manage that at least.

How a Christmas story pertains to caring for my son ... I have no idea, other than these are the correlations my brain is making at the moment.
Labels:
Location: Columbus, OH, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Terror or Anger

Jennifer and I woke about twenty minutes ago to Patrick crying ... nothing unusual. I asked her to get him since I have to start getting ready for work in about three hours (yes, I have to work on a Saturday). Where things became unusual was the loud, sustained crash, and Patrick's cries rising to a hefty scream. Being the concerned parent that I am ... with visions of his changing table collapsed on top of him, I rushed to their aid. "What was that?" I cried. Jennifer, weakly replied, "I fell down the stairs." With Patrick screaming at the top of his lungs, I think I actually asked her to repeat what she said. I found my wife sitting, with her legs out and my son in her arms, at the bottom of the stairs. Asking if she and Patrick were OK was mixed into confused questioning about what happened. Somehow, her feet went out from under her (we suspect a couple of the leaves that Patrick likes to play with were on the steps). While my real concern was i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Getting Involved

This is the second night in a row that we were able to spend time and Grandma and Papap's ... Patrick enjoys it so much! We even had a rousing rendition of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" with all five of us involved ... yes, Patrick is pitching in now. He runs from person to person, giving a bit to each one of us ... there is never a dull moment. Tonight, he repeated a new activity from last night. Last night, it was getting everyone involved in chasing him around the house ... tonight, we had this activity, but what we saw was that he wanted to play different games and wanted certain people involved. This is when he went to each person that needed to be involved and grabbed a finger, pulling them along. He even checked every now and then to make sure they were still following. Such an amazing child ... knows how to ensure that we sleep well.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Evolution of Walking

It started with an attempt to crawl that looked more like something the military spent weeks getting me to perfect (the "low crawl") ... Patrick got that down in a few minutes.  After all the photos, videos, and calls to our grandparents, we marveled at how amazing our son was. Then, the crawl became something that involved all four limbs; quite a bump up from just his arms.  It wasn't long before he was moving quick enough to get his fingers into the door as I was closing it. The primal scream of pain was unreal ... yet, all too real.  The little man's finger was dented ... I still feel a bit guilty today and it has been months since the incident. Then, just as Patrick was getting the crawling down, he managed to pull himself into a standing position without any help.  About that time, he took a nose dive off the bed into a popcorn bowl ... it was hard not to laugh as he cried in pain. He loved playing with a fire engine that he can sit on and in...
Post a Comment
Read more