10 years later

I was traveling with a music team from my school back in Cincinnati, and as was our usual custom, we were housed by families from the churches where we sang. I had a lot of interesting experiences with host families, some good and some not so good. There was one night in particular when the host family was a man and woman, both alumni of Cincinnati, and they also had a couple of small children. I remember sitting in their kitchen while the dad cleaned up the floor in the adjoining bathroom, where his young son had “missed.”

I was pretty young, and of course, I thought that was pretty gross. The couple had been out of school for about 10 years, and I distinctly remember him saying to me, “This could be you in 10 years, cleaning up pee off the floor.”

That was my first year in that program, it was 1997. Tonight, 10 years later, the circle of life is complete. My own son “had an accident” and I found myself cleaning up pee off the bathroom floor. 10 years ago that was such a remote possibility. Today it is actually more unusual when I don't have to clean up after a kid or dog or something.

I remember another time when the host family had a small baby. Sometime during dinner the baby got sick and threw up all over its mother. Like a true mother, she just held the baby and let it shower her. I remember thinking, “That is the grossest thing I've ever seen.” As a college student, my first instinct would have been to point the baby at somebody else when it started puking. Maybe point it at a bucket or something, i don't know.

Then I had a baby of my own, and he got sick and threw up. And you know what my first instinct was? To hold him close to me and help him through it. It's funny how that changes.

Ya, it's kind of gross being a parent. But hey, it's a small price to pay for the “World's Greatest Dad” T-Shirt:)

I will NOT shovel my driveway in April

Happy Spring! There are 3 inches of snow in my driveway!

I will not shovel it. Thought it has been snowing for a couple of days straight now, and the visibility outside is dropping, I refuse to shovel my driveway. It is a matter of principal. I've already put away the snowblower and i don't care how high the snow piles up, i am going to wait for it to melt.

My 3 year old has already switched over to spring mode, I think. I swear he must have slowed his energy down a bit over the winter to accomodate being indoors all the time, it must be some sort of hibernation. But then the weather got nice and we played outside every day. He's been riding his bike and playing in the sandbox, we've been going for walks.

Tuesday night, we went for a nice walk, it was about 68 degrees. We played outside and cooked chicken on the grill. Wednesday morning I woke up to go to school, and it was snowing.

that's just WRONG!!!

Now my boy is bouncing off the walls and talking a thousand words a minute, it's like adjusting to winter all over again. I wonder how everybody did with Easter egg hunts today, there were a bunch scheduled. I think we're going to find an indoor location to hide a few eggs tomorrow afternoon.

Although an outdoor egg hunt would certainly be interesting today - nothing hides a field full of easter eggs like 3 inches of snow!