This week in parenting

Ah parenting, the greatest of life's grand projects, that special glint in one eye and twitch in the other. I am new to the game. I have been a step dad now for around a year and a half and a new dad for six weeks. Every day is a new challenge, every day my limits are pushed. I love it. Now where did I put the Advil?

Here are a few parental anecdotes from earlier this week:

Zach the 6-year-old's greatest pleasure in life is to wrestle. He loves to get his little arse kicked (both figuratively and literally), he gets wrestled to submission, yells uncle and then comes back for more. He is like a black Lab with a stick, he won't stop, he is tireless. Anyway, the other night I was doing the dishes. I had my iPod on, I didn't hear him coming...WHACK! Didn't the little bugger sneak up on me from behind and smack me with all his might right square on the ass. I was stunned for a second. This was an unprecedented attack. I had no way of knowing it was coming. Once my senses were restored, the poor wee bugger got the dish towel whipping of a lifetime. He loved every second of it.

10-year-old girls are interesting creatures. I can't as yet say that I have them figured out. I probably never will, at least not while they are still 10-years-old. My 10-year-old daughter is a much different creature one-on-one then she is when the whole family is around. She torments the crap out of her younger brother, but is the best big sister ever to her six-week-old sister. Go figure. Anyway, I pick up her and her friend Patrick from school each day. Patrick on this particular day was home sick with the flu. It was just she and I. On the way home we stopped at the bank and the supermarket. It took some bribing for her to agree to follow me all around town, but I knew she was pleased as punch to have just 'we' time. She had this look in her eyes, it is pure love, pure bliss. It is hard to explain how wonderful it feels to have a little girl look at you like you are their hero. It makes your heart grow 12 times. I makes you feel like you are going to burst. It's magic but it's fleeting, she will recommence the screaming once returned to the nest. Sigh, one has to learn to hold on to the special little moments.

Then there is the newborn. Zoey turns 6-weeks-old tomorrow. She is growing up faster than I can fathom. I can make her smile almost every time with a pbbt. She even sticks out her tongue in anticipation (she is her daddy's girl, farting noises always get me too). I am mere days away from making her laugh. She can't quite figure it all out yet. She coos, she squawks, she gets very animated, but she can't get the giggles to come. When she does, holy moly is daddy gonna be proud. Expect videos, my little starlet is going viral.

Well there, a little of what I have experienced so far this week as a dad. It is of course not all fun. I have banned Legos for a night, I have issued time outs, I have played referee, judge and jury. I am constantly on my toes, my ears are cocked, my senses sharp. Ye gads and to think, two years ago I was in the midst of planning a grand European adventure. Life is weird. But damn it, in retrospect, most of it is good fun.