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As many of you parents know, there isn’t a much more helpless feeling in the world than when you have a sick child. They are raised to believe that Mom and Dad can fix everything and I’ve even caught myself telling my son that exact line after he’s fallen down and cut himself. That’s why, when they get a cold, flu or other illness, they look to you, with their ever questioning eyes, wondering what magic spell you are going to cast to make it all better. The truth is, Mom and Dad can’t fix everything, but we sure as hell try our hardest.

That brings me to today, my self-designated, first night of blogging. Unfortunately, all I can think about is my poor daughter and how sick she is. With a fever breaking 104 at points throughout the day, she has been anything but herself. Fortunately for my ego, she is a Mommy’s girl, which means that my wife is taking most of the “fix me” stares. Unfortunately, this doesn’t do anything for my heart, which pains with every one of her pains.

My wife and I look at each other as we wrestle with the idea of visiting the children’s hospital or waiting to see our doctor in the morning. There’s no easy answer to that question. It’s most likely a cold or flu, which means a 6 hour wait at the children’s hospital will yield nothing more than a “lots of water and rest” response, along with disapproving looks from the nurses, as if we should have known better than to waste their time with this.

We settle on calling Tele-Health and asking their nurse a few questions. We’ve called a few times and while it seems like a nice service to have, it always returns the same results, “we recommend you see a doctor” and “we’re not allowed to recommend any medications”. Back to square one. In the end, she shows enough spunk to save us (and her) from the brutal wait times the hospitals here have to offer.

There was a positive side to the story though. My 3 year old son is not sick and is in desperate need of attention, with all the concern being showered on his little sister. That means an opportunity for a Father/Son day and I’m more than happy to oblige. We start with some groceries, a task he is always surprisingly excited about. It may have something to do with the bakery giving out cookies to the kids and even the little people shopping carts they provide now. As sad as it may sound, groceries are one of my favourite activities to do with the kids because they genuinely seem to enjoy it and they behave admirably while we are there (I direct you back to the part about free cookies). The other plus is that my wife appreciates me doing the groceries because it’s not one of her favourites, that equals Man Bucks…right? I’ll spend them the next time my buddies want me to watch UFC with them.

After we finish groceries, my boy and I take a trip to Walmart for some diapers, still a necessity with a 1 year old daughter at home. Funny, we used to tease a guy at work about diapers, before any of us had kids. His wife was pregnant and we would bug him about being ready for fatherhood and all the extra costs a baby brings. The one thing we’d always say is “Diapers are expensive man, are you sure you want to do this?” We were just kidding around with him, but the one thing we didn’t realize at the time, is exactly how expensive diapers really were. My son didn’t potty train until he was 3 and a half, so with my 20 month old daughter already potty training, you can imagine my excitement as I am already planning the number of things I will buy with that extra diaper money. We decided to celebrate this new found fortune a little early, with a trip to what my son refers to as “Old McDonald’s”. Yep, that’s right folk’s, I’ve seen the documentary ‘Supersize Me’ at least a dozen times and still have the nerve to take my kid there for a Happy Meal every now and then. It was Hot Wheels toy day too, which brings an extra large smile to my son’s face and in turn, an even bigger one to mine.

The best part of the day comes with a milestone as my son and I head over to our community’s Winter Family Fun Day. The trip starts with sadness at the thought of my wife and sick daughter stuck at home in bed, but quickly changes to elation as I take my son Ice skating for the very first time. I’m a big hockey fan, so it’s important to me that my kids get a chance to be into the same things I am. To my excitement, he loves it and we spend a good part of half an hour skating around the outdoor rink. I feel for my wife because I know she hates to miss milestone moments, but I’ve come to the realization that we can’t be there for all of them, so you may as well enjoy the ones you get to be a part of. They are truly miraculous to watch.

The end of the day brings more good news as my daughter’s fever is down and she is excited to play with us when we get home, as mommy gets dinner ready. It’s such a nice sight to have my baby girl back and we have a great time laughing and playing. She loves her brother so much, the way she looks at him and copies his every move, it gives you one of those pause moments where you realize how important these little creatures are in your life. Admittedly, I’m not a religious man, but I know what love is and there’s not enough words in the English language to describe the love I have for my family.

This is my first blog post, so it was difficult for me to come up with content that I felt would best reflect my thoughts and feelings on where I want this thing to go. I realized very quickly that I don’t need to say everything in one post because it’s a long life and I plan on posting a lot more over the coming months and years. If there’s one thing to take away from this, I guess it’s that, nobody’s perfect. We can’t always fix everything, sometimes we go to McDonald’s because it the easy thing to do, and love tends to rule all. I hope you enjoyed my first entry, there’s lots more to come from me so please stick around for the ride!