"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
My Boog Pages
Monday, March 18
That Ol' Rockin' Chair Might Get Me
Yesterday was a good day to be a daddy. Woke up way too early, considering that I'd gotten up at 3:30 to rock my daughter Annie back to sleep. I managed to get the kids and myself off to church successfully, although I forgot Annie's bag and had to scroung a couple of diapers out of the back of the car. My wife stayed home, getting ready for the Big Event: my son Joseph's birthday party.
It was a blast, too. She'd lined up this woman who gives "little chef" parties, where all the kids make pizzas out of tortillas, a little Ragu, some cheese strips, and pepperoni. The kids thought it was awesome. We even let Joseph (all of 5 years old) light the candles on his birthday cake. This almost turned out to be a mistake when he nearly set the butane lighter on fire, but we got out of it without any fatalities. Later on, one of the kids got loose in the backyard, where Joseph had a new swingset/fort, and suddenly it was a stampede. No one got too muddy, and a good time was had by all.
Later on I went to dinner with my sister and a friend who'd come to the party. I got home about 7:30, just in time to put the kids in bed. It's my job to read them their stories and get them down to sleep. It's a great feeling knowing your children are resting contentedly, and are safe in bed. I read Annie a typical 5 or 6 books, mostly short ones along the lines of Goodnight Moon, then had to rock her for at least half an hour. Normally I can put her in the bed after ten minutes or so and she'll happily look at a book until she falls asleep, but she hadn't wanted a nap (wasted rocking time: 60 minutes) and was very sleepy, which meant I had to rock her right into dreamland. After I had her down I went and read a couple of stories to Joseph. He likes Franklin and Curious George and a few other stories, so I read to him, then asked him the question I always ask him: "What kind of dreams are you going to have tonight?" He usually laughs and says "Bad!" Then we pretend to argue for a few minutes and this defuses anything that might be bothering him. But last night he just looked happy and said, "Good." Then he remembered and shouted "BAD!" and we had a laugh.
