The Young and the Restless

The Thing About Dads

Happy New Years! We had fun ringing in the New Year, well more like ringing in 10:00pm with some friends who hosted a game night. Here's to a wonderful 2008...so now that the small talk formalities are over with, let's get right down to the point. Seriously, what is the thing about dads? I want to know what they've got that mom's don't that allow them to reach rockstar status just by walking in the room. So this past week and a half we have been having so much fun hanging out with Jason. At first I thought that it was so cute that the kids always wanted to do everything with dad. By day eleven I'm starting to take it personal. We go to a restraunt and they both have to sit by dad which leaves me all by my lonesome on the other side of the table. We go hiking and no one wants to hold my hand. We go on a bike ride and they are in tears because one of them has to ride with mom (even after promises of going really fast this time). We go grocery shopping and nobody wants to go in the cart with me (which actually worked out to my advantage as I was by myself when I could hear Jayden knocking over storage bins in the next aisle-ha! ha!). When we eat dinner at home they both move their chairs away from my side of the table and are scrunched next to dad. When they come lay in our bed in the morning they are both fighting over who gets to lay next to dad and it usually ends up that all 3 are squished onto one pillow and I've got the remaining 3/4 of the king sized bed to myself. And the list goes on, but you get the point. Jason is a wonderful dad and is very deserving of all the extra love, but there is just something about seeing a mom in a restraunt sitting in solitary confinement on one side of the table with the rest of the family piled on top of eachother on the other side that just screams 'bad mom'! After all that us moms do, is it to much to ask to just share the love? I mean come on, who is the one that cleaned up the volcano of diarreah in the aisle of Target using only baby wipes (definately not dad)? Who is the one that was left hungry after I let you eat all my Taco Bell nachos and Pho noodles because I know they're you're favorite. Who is the one up in the middle of the night changing sheets with throw-up on them? Who is the one who hosted 14 four year olds for your birthday party? Who is the one that cleaned up after you when you decided to pee inside of the cupboard? Who is the one that is up in the middle of the night giving medicine, rubbing "leg aches" and comforting you from a bad dream? Who is the one that rushed you to the doctor when you stuck a comb in your ear and ruptured your ear drum? Who is the one that cried the first time I held you, the first time you got a shot, the first time I left you overnight and your first day of school? Who is the one that spends hours constructing train tracks and organizing the Barbie house, only to have it destroyed moments later? Who is the one that scrubbed your hands until they were raw when you pulled out a used tampon applicator in the public restroom? Who is the one that didn't get too mad when you used a rock to carve your name into the tint on the car window and the door handle (Jason is still a little sensitive about this one)? Who goes with you on all the merry-go-round rides eventhough it makes me sick? Who has spent 1/3 of motherhood waiting in a crowded doctor's office? Who is the one that knows all 22 kids in your class by name so that I can be an "involved parent"? Who is the one that stays up at night worrying about you? Who is the one that has endured countless hours of Teletubbies and Wiggles? Who put the cranky CVS employee in her place after she got mad when you knocked over an entire display of coloring books? And lets not forget who drank your concoction of water, milk, syrup and peanut butter because you were so excited about your new creation. And don't even get me started about the 9 months of pregnancy and 20 hours in the hospital, lets not even go there...of course just like any other mom, I would do these things again in a second (okay, maybe not the erupting pooh volcano). But maybe, just maybe, if it's not too much to ask, the next time that we go to the movies could you please try not to cry quite so loud because you have to sit by me??

But there is one thing that only moms can do. Kylie and Jayden love their dad to death (which I really do absolutely love. I'm totally kidding about the jealousy stuff--well, mostly :) but when they get hurt or sad, they always come to mom. It makes it all worth it to know that only moms have a special way of making things all better. That is something I want to hold on to for as long as I can...