Fatherhood

We had my parents over for dinner last night ... Patrick and Jen prepared dinner, even going as far as making brownies for desert! It was very cool watching Patrick cuddle with his Grandfather. It is always amazing to me how those two get along. It was also very cool watching Patrick and his Grandmother read a book together ... Before dinner, he got a chance to show off the cast-iron toy stove that Jen had played with as a child. This has become one of his favorite toys ... the parts certainly make a lot of noise when he tosses them across the room. At dinner, I sat next to Patrick, across from his grandparents ... their expressions as they watched him were sheer joy and a joy to watch, as well. At one point, I asked Patrick to show them the Moon and Stars in his room. He has a humidifier that lights up, projecting colored starts and a moon on the ceiling ... he loves them. He immediately headed for the stairs, and turned to his grandparents and signaled come on ... a q...

Cleaning dishes that had piled into both sinks and were spilling over onto our cutting board, I was reminded of when Jen and I realized that the amount of laundry we do has increased dramatically. For a little-guy, he generates a LOT of dirty clothes ... he also generates a lot of dirty dishes ... pots, pans, silverware, and cups. Our workload has increased, but in a good way. What we did before Patrick was for us ... now, it's for family. I thought back to how he has grown ... he's even playing different. Patrick helped me with dinner ... he carried the egg from the refrigerator to the stove and mixed the egg and bread mix together for me. So cool! He has also been eating candy from Halloween ... well, let me amend that, he chews on the package with the candy in it. If he breaks the package and can taste the candy, he gets a new one. He spent about two hours taking the candy out of it's container and organizing it on our coffee table. Bored with that, he grabbe...