Fatherhood

We walked into my parents house ... looking for Papap. "Hello," we called. "'Ello," Patrick mimicked. "Hello," we called again, laughing a bit. "'Ello," Patrick mimicked again, delighted that he could get us laughing that easily. Out in the back yard, he went for the shovel (small blue plastic one I got for him a while back). "Maybe he should go shovel in the sand-box," Papap said ... Off he went to the sand-box, lugging the shovel. Later I asked him if he wanted raisins. Shaking his head no, he headed for the fridge. "Eeze," he said ... Cheese, he intended. His comprehension and vocal capacity is growing by leaps and bounds!

Today was a good day ... other than the computer dying. Patrick had a wonderful day ... playing with Mama in the morning, then church with family in the afternoon ... lunch with Grandma and Papap, then a nap while we waited for Best Buy to change out the power supply on the computer (I know, with my expertise, why pay? ... sometimes, the last thing I want to do is work on a machine in my time off) ... two hours later, they told me they couldn't do anything. I took the computer home and swapped out the video card and we are back up and running. I know ... a power supply is not a video card, but it was pretty obvious to me that there was something wrong when the video card fan and heat sink fell off. Patrick helped a bit ... distracted me while I waited. What a wonderful son. We just got back from Grandma and Papap's, playing the the tree covered back yard ... swing, sand, water fountain ... all the things a young boy would love!

My to-do list has been magnified to previously unimaginable proportions ... it used to be "honey-do" list (honey, do this). It has become a to-do list of survival ... but thankfully, only for about twenty-four more hours. Jennifer had to go to a conference. I opted to take care of Patrick ... get him to school, get him from school, dinner, a bath, then put him down to sleep. Repeat. Repeat again ... done. Simple, right? Not so ... School entails getting up, hopefully without waking him up (there is no fall back if he wakes while I am in the shower). Get him ready for school ... not so bad, but try diapering a child that likes to sleep on his stomach. Plus, we have the added constraint that I have to get him to "my" father's because I have to be at work an hour before daycare opens. Picking him up from school ... not so bad, except for the activities after school ... we will avoid those in this article. Let's just say these are life events, n...