Fatherhood

We were playing near the stair from our kitchen to the lower level. Patrick had a squishy toy we bought for him a few weeks back. When it hits something, it flashes brightly ... he loves it. He was tossing the toy down the stairs and I was flipping it back up to him, often bouncing it off his head or chest. The laughter was incredible ... so much fun. Then, he made a run toward the stairs to get in a good toss ... and I knew he was in trouble. He tripped as I launched myself up the stairs ... just in time to catch him before his head hit the first step down the stairs. As Jen came around the corner to see what all the commotion was about, I was just getting my nerves back in order and began lifting him back to his feet. He let me hold him for a few seconds then, seeing his mother nearby, his tears stopped and he stretched out for her. ... so much fun!

After I got home yesterday, we decided to take a walk (might explain why I fell asleep so early after a LONG day at work). We headed over to a tiny playground a few blocks away. It has a covered pick nick table and a kids area where they can climb up a metal and plastic structure and select one of two slides to take down. Of course, my son LOVES this ... it was a bit wet (having actually rained recently) and he got thoroughly dirty. Up the ladder, then down the slide ... over and over and over and over; interspersed with moments of laughter! On the walk home, he pushed the stroller most of the way ... running ahead of us when he was not pushing the stroller. I crossed the yard to the front door and tried to get him to come along ... apparently, the yard is still a bit difficult to walk on; he stayed on the sidewalk and driveway. Too much fun!

A simple game of peek-a-boo, running around the loop of bedroom, bathroom, and hallway was interrupted with a quick game of "king of the hill," climbing the large pile of laundry that Jen and I have been working on since moving in (it is a challenge re-washing almost everything we own while keeping up with what we are currently wearing). Up the pile my son went, to roll of the top of the hill, into my lap ... over and over. It is amazing the fun we can have with laundry. Then, it was quickly back to running laps ... which got terminated when Patrick said "bye-bye" to his mother and promptly shut the bathroom door on his fingers. Amazingly, mother's kisses really do work as the tears stopped once she kissed the bruised fingers.

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...