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The Small Victories

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It seems like only a few weeks ago that we were working on which shoe went on which foot. Yesterday, you zipped up your own coat for the first time and seeing the pride in your eyes, further fueled the pride in my fatherly heart.

It’s these small but very significant victories that make being your parent the incredible journey that it is. Every single day you do something to amaze me and I have a feeling that this is going to continue for the rest of our time together.

I hope you never lose your sense of adventure and your willingness to want to learn new things. It’s in watching you strive to achieve our goals that I find the strength to go after mine, in an effort to prove to you that your efforts are never in vain. Your presence has made me a better man and I am thankful every day for you.

I Want Mommy!!!

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I work hard at trying to give my kids the same kind of upbringing that I had and that includes my being a very hands on type of father. So you can imagine my surprise recently, when both my children decided that they didn’t want daddy reading their bedtime stories anymore… “I Want Mommy!” they both cried, on consecutive nights.

Let me tell you something about the type of story teller they have for a father. I have worked countless hours practicing my Mater and Dr. Doofenshmirtz impressions, so that come game time, I am ready to go. I don’t just read Pinkalicious, I AM Pinkalicious. Don’t even get me started on how many times I have watched Tinkerbell’s, Pixie Hollow Games, in order to get all the character’s names and voices juuuuust right! And, do they not remember the tears from my dramatic reading of when Barbie became class president and then got a chance to meet the first woman president of the United States?!

Well, just when I thought things couldn’t get any lower for this loving father, my son had one more surprise for me. While the two children fought over who got to have their precious mommy for story time, my son got up and left the room. I assumed he had accepted defeat at the hands of his younger sister, until he returned a minute later with a shiny object in his hand and a proposal for his lil’ sis.

“If you let daddy read your story, I’ll give you this money from my piggy bank”, he bribed as he slyly flashed the shiny nickel before her eyes.

“I WANT DADDY TO READ MY STORY!!” she proclaimed wildly as she snatched up the coin that Canada will probably do away with next.

And there you have it, folks. The pleasure of my company reduced to the cost of a big foot gummy candy. On the bright side, I have a persuasive son, a daughter who wants to make the big bucks and a wife who happily sits upon her throne, for now! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go check the couches for more nickels.

Three Year Old Pride

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In case you have never met me or followed me on any social media channel, I attended a conference last weekend called, Blissdom Canada. At this conference, I was given the opportunity to do my very first presentation, with slide show and everything. Yeah, I know, bad ass! It was an amazing and exhilarating experience and one that I won’t soon forget.

After the presentation, I received so many supportive and encouraging tweets, messages and face to face compliments, that I was on cloud nine until…well, I’m still kind of there but that’s not the point. Something else happened that trumped all of that, which probably sounds hard to believe.

I was lucky enough to have my amazing wife there, who spent the whole weekend making sure our kids were having a great time on their mini vacation. They told me all about their swimming pool adventures and it was great to see how excited they were to have met the “Real” Chuck E. Cheese! I was sad to miss out on all the fun but realized that without the conference we wouldn’t have been there anyway. Plus, they got a chance to come down and watch my first ever presentation, which was really special for me.

I caught them on their way back from dinner on the last night and as I was talking to them, my three year old daughter started playing with my conference badge, which hung from a lanyard around my neck.

“What’s this, Daddy?” she asked
“That’s my ticket for Daddy’s conference, honey” I replied, figuring I could have said anything and she wouldn’t have really understood.

Then she hit me with the bomb…

“Did you get that for being so good on the stage today?”

She stared, very matter of factly, into my eyes as she said it and I couldn’t help thinking that she knew exactly what she was doing and how much it meant to me. I was thankful for all the nice words from everyone throughout the day, but for your three year old to express pride in something you did is beyond words. I mean, having your children be proud of you is part of the goal, right?

I hugged her so quickly and tightly that I’m hoping she didn’t get a chance to see the tears. Not because I felt the need to hide them, but they would have been hard to explain at that point. This was just one of the memories at made at Blissdom Canada but it’s one of the ones that will stay with me forever.

The Greatest Love of All

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Love Those Kids

I don’t tend to do the Wordless Wednesday posts and I guess these words kind of negate this being one of them, but every now and then you take a picture that rocks you and this one did that for me. It reminds me of the lengths I would go to make sure they are protected and get the life they deserve. I love these little munchkins and wouldn’t trade this life for anything.

A Side I Never Knew I Had

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Stars On Ice

I’ve experienced a lot of emotional changes since becoming a father, but crying at a Stars on Ice figure skating show was probably the most baffling one yet. I attended the show with my soon to be three year old daughter and had no expectations about how she would react to it. As it would turn out, we both loved the show but this is far from a theatrical review.

I always consider myself to be a lucky father, in that I have a regular day job and weekends free to spend time with my family. The blogging has provided my family with further opportunities but even without that, I feel blessed to get as much time with them as I do. And as much fun as it is to do group activities, it is the one on one time with my kids that I cherish most of all. This is the time that they get to shine and it’s especially great for me because they show me sides of them I rarely get to give my undivided attention to.

In my daughter’s case, she is very excitable and also has a tremendously big heart. She is so excitable in fact, that we once had to walk out of Madagascar 3, but not for the reasons you would suspect. We had to leave because every time a new character came onto the screen she would yell, “Lion, Lion, Lion!!!” or “Zebra, Zebra, Zebra! We saw a zebra at the Zoo!!!” Hilarious and frustrating at the exact same time because she didn’t understand why we had to leave.

Watching her excitement at Stars on Ice opened up a whole new realm of emotions that I never knew I had in me. I melted at the way she would yell out when she recognized a song, clapped vigorously at the end of performances and especially when the pairs skaters hugged at the end of their routine and she remarked, “Aww, that’s so nice”. The kicker came during Kurt Browning‘s “Singing in the Rain” performance. My daughter was getting a little tired but I have always wanted to see him skate that one live, so we stuck around. She sat quietly on my lap, hand in mine, with her head resting on my shoulder and we enjoyed the final skate.

I’m not sure how to describe what happened next. I’m guessing it was a mix of the perfection of the moment, the grace of the performance and Brene Brown’s vulnerability speech stuck in my head but I was suddenly forced to fight back some tears. I still have no idea what happened but I’m pretty sure it had everything to do with that little girl and the pride I have in being her father. It’s a side of me I hadn’t seen before but is definitely something I am willing to embrace.

For those of you who don’t know Brene Brown, here is one of her Ted Talks. She spoke at Dad 2.0 Summit and I carried her message back home with me.

I Love You In The Whole Universe

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Universe

“I Love You In The Whole Universe, Daddy”

I don’t even really know where she got it from, but my little princess repeats it to me every night before bed. I have to admit that the fact that it is grammatically incorrect actually makes it more endearing to me. She is excellent at making me feel like the more important person in the world and I hope I do the same for her and my son.

Deeder Dodder Date: Princess Edition

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Daddy Daughter Date

“Daddy, is tomorrow Deeder Dodder Day?” she asked.

“You bet, honey!” I answered.

“Yay!!!” she squealed excitedly.

If I could have frozen that moment forever, I would have. You see, “Deeder Dodder Day” is actually my 2 year old daughter’s way of saying “Daddy Daughter Date“, and to see how excited she was to be hanging out with me was enough to swell my heart with pride.

When I asked my daughter out on the date a few days before this exchange, I had just secured tickets to the Official Princess Parties “Royal Ball” and I knew she would love it. My only concern was whether she would say yes or not! Luckily for me, she said yes and I was able to keep the event a surprise until the big day came. I had been eyeing this event ever since our chance run in with an awesome Snow White earlier in the year. The fact that we had met Rapunzel and Minnie Mouse at later events were icing on the cake. Knowing that the proceeds were going to the Children’s Wish Foundation and that these particular characters were going to be there were just added bonuses.

Snow WhiteSnow White Belle

 

 

 

 

 

The magical day arrived and we were off to meet our favourite Disney characters. It’s hard to pinpoint my favourite part of the afternoon because there were so many. From seeing my daughter’s face light up as we were greeted in the parking lot by Mickey Mouse, to the moment the princesses were introduced, the entire event was amazing and well put together. They had a candy bar, nail painting and lots of interactive things for the little kids to do with the princesses (and two princes). Oh yeah, did I mention the chocolate fountain?? That one was for Daddy.

I loved watching the emotions that ran through my little girl’s brain that day. She was excited at times and shy at others. She participated in all the activities, even though she was the smallest one there by quite a bit. We danced, sang, ate candy and laughed the whole time. We had pure unfiltered fun and it was a perfect afternoon.

I want to say a great big Thank You to all the wonderful employees and characters at Official Princess Parties. You made a wonderful impression on my daughter and gave us a Deeder Dodder Date that we will remember forever.

PS – Funny story. While we were talking to Rapunzel, I brought up that my daughter had asked to have a princess birthday party. She had asked for a Rapunzel party at home but when Rapunzel herself asked, my daughter said she wanted an Ariel party…awkward. If Rapunzel is reading this, as soon as we got in the car, she again asked for a Rapunzel party. Followed by a Snow White Party. Followed by a Belle party…No hard feelings??

Cheers!

Princesses

The Thin Line Between Love and Hate

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Father Son

The sting was more than I had I anticipated. I knew this day would come but not this soon. Not now. It seems like just yesterday when we were playing outside in the snow, running, laughing and loving each other’s company. Actually, that was, literally, just yesterday. How did we get from that to this…

“I Hate My Daddy and We’re Not Friends Anymore!”

Of course, I played it totally cool the moment it happened even though my ears and my heart were burning up. All he had to do was say he was sorry to his little sister, who he had just shoved in a fit of anger. It seemed like a reasonable enough request as far as I was concerned, but his refusal landed him in his room for timeout.

Four. That’s how old my precious little bundle of joy is. Four years is all it took for him to go from falling asleep in his rice cereal to figuring out the keys to victory in a showdown with his old man.

Four. That’s how many minutes his timeout would last, unless he was willing to come out and apologize; which he was not.

Four. That’s the amount of minutes I had to sit outside his door and think about a life where my son hated me. It felt like 4 years and I almost caved a number of times but managed to stand my ground.

Where did he even learn that word? It’s not like he knows what it means; at least not in its truest form. We also try not to use any of the no-no words in our house. You know the ones: stupid, jerk, loser, hate, Caillou; see George Carlin for the rest.

He’s bound to hear them all at some point or another. If it wasn’t from me, it was going to be at school or on television, where even toddler programs seem to be pushing the envelope for reasons I can’t explain (I’m looking at you, Arthur).

We sat and talked after the timeout fiasco. We talked about why we should never use that word and how much it can hurt other people. I don’t know if he understood the conversation but he nodded along and then apologized for saying it and for hitting his sister. Oddly enough, I may have been the one who learned the biggest lesson out of all of this. No matter how hard we try to shield our children from the bad things in this world, they are eventually going to find them, so it’s best to be mentally ready for these situations well ahead of time. So far, the only true method I have found to be effective is love, patience and understanding, which I hope rubs off on my kids as they grow older and wiser.

I’m also happy to report that after our chat, my son let me know that we can be friends again, which is all this Dad really needed to hear.

Have your kids told you that they hate you before? If so, what age were they?

Cheers!

To Wrap, or Not To Wrap: That Is The Question

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DSC_0006

I recently posted on my Facebook Page, asking advice about whether or not you wrap the presents from Santa Claus. I had never heard of not wrapping them but the thought of cutting 6-7 presents off the wrapping table was intriguing to me.

I think the most comments I have ever received on a Facebook post was around 16, so when this one hit 70, I knew that it was a topic that needed further exploration. From reading through the comments, I also realized that there were no official operating procedures when it comes to Santa’s gifts. I tried to reach Santa but was told that he was too busy to comment. Understandable at this time of year.

We have always wrapped the presents from Santa in a special wrapping paper and will most likely continue this tradition, but I really enjoyed reading through all the different opinions on the subject. I even liked the ones that criticized me for posting about how Santa Claus may not be really real because their kids might walk behind them and see their computer screen! I’m sure it was done in jest.

Here’s a quick “wrap-up” of some of the responses I received. Pun intended.

* No presents from Santa, only stockings.
* Wrapped, with Santa’s gifts having different paper.
* Presents from Santa not wrapped and bundled together in a specific spot.
* Big items unwrapped, all others wrapped.
* Santa’s elves are tired and lazy, so Mommy and Daddy wrap them.

Now it’s your turn! Does Santa wrap the presents he leaves for your kids, or are they left unwrapped for them to enjoy right away?

Cheers!

A Dance With My Daughter

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I wonder if she understands how much it means to me? Does she know that agreeing to dance with me at that birthday party, sent me into a state of bliss that is almost impossible to match?

The smile on her face says that she was equally as excited to be dancing with her Daddy, but would she have been just as excited to have just grabbed anyone at that point? I mean, it was the incredible catchy “Dora The Explorer” theme song.

I like to think that she felt the same way about the 45 second blip in our day, as we stomped our feet and twirled around, our cheeks sore from the growing smiles. I might sound like an overly sappy Dad here, but these are the little moments that make you forget all your troubles and remind you of how great life can be.

Maybe someday, she’ll read this and know how special that brief moment was for her Dad. I hope she does. I hope she reads this and understands that she made a memory for me that day. One that she may not remember, but that I will take with me forever.

It was only 45 seconds, but the memory remains for a lifetime.

Cheers!