The first one is always the hardest…that’s why it’s taken me
so long to make an entry about raising Adelyn. No, taking care of my first
child hasn’t been the hard part (far from easy either), but deciding on what to
write. It’s been over a year since Adelyn blessed our lives by arriving on
Valentine’s Day 2017, and since then some have suggested I start a blog about
my experiences of being a stay at home dad. The idea intrigued me, but I didn’t
know where to start. Then I saw this picture from our beach vacation this
summer and inspiration struck.
On a daily basis I’m struck by how big Adelyn is getting,
not so much physically, but in what she’s able to do. She can use a fork all by
herself, though it’s often barren of any food (hey, maybe that’s why she’s so
small), identify body parts, and almost walk as fast as I can. It seems like
only yesterday that she was dependent on us for everything, now she likes to do
it all herself. No truer words were even spoken than, ‘They sure grow up fast,’
except for maybe, ‘We have the meats’ from Arby’s. ‘
Beyond its scenic beauty, for me this picture shows Adelyn
stepping into, full of excitement, the big and dangerous world ahead while I’m
right behind her for protection. For her the ocean, much like the world in
which we live, looks like lots of fun, but it can quickly pull you down. There
are both little waves to hurdle and tidal waves with the power to knock you
down, all of which must be faced head-on (well, in the ocean you can turn your
back, but that’s not the point!). The tide rises quickly though, and it won’t
be long until Adelyn’s in deep water (literally). The older she gets the bigger
the waves get. There are times I feel like I’m in a hurricane, but then I stop
listening to my wife and everything is tranquil. (Just joking) Wait until
Adelyn starts pre-school, and all her classmates have i-phones, so she’ll want
one. The wave of being socially accepted, is a really big one, which still
wipes me out sometimes.
The deeper the ocean gets, the more fish there are swimming
around, biting at your heels. Those young boys can be real sharks. With all of
her cuteness, Adelyn is going to be the equivalent of fishing with filet mignon
as bait and really reel them in. I can see it now, at snack time a boy sits
next to her and after drinking of his bottle of Fiji water says, ‘My dad is the
CEO of a Fortune 500 Company, what does your dad do?’ Adelyn thinks, while
pulling her sippy cup from her mouth, ‘Ummm, he watches a lot of Netflix.’ At
least she’ll say it proudly.
Yes, plenty of waves are coming Adelyn’s way and it’s my
wish that her excitement will never waver about diving into life (and the
ocean) and that Mommy and I will always be able to pull her out when danger comes.
