Me: Wakes up, heads down to the computerI didn't actually "forget" my birthday, it just wasn't the first thing on my mind that morning. I had to get Megan ready to goto summer camp and was trying to figure out where I could run that wasn't pure hills. Hills are not nice to shins and/or muscles in general, and I wanted to try and do a longer run.
Me: Sits down, checks google maps for possible runs
Andrea: Sitting next to me, looks over and says "Happy Birthday!"
Me: "Oh crap, that's right."
I ended up doing 15.8 miles, which is the longest distance for this year. Today I feel good, minor tightness in a few areas. I'm thinking I might push the long distances this summer and go for a new distance record this year. Depends on if my legs can really hold up to that kind of mileage.
The rest of my birthday was just an average day. We killed a bunch of time over at my Mom's house watching movies. My Mom is out of town, so we had 2 TVs at our disposal. Megan watched Bolt and took a nap downstairs while we watched The Spirit (sorta sucked) and Wanted. It was a nice break in parenting to be completely honest, to just relax for a few hours.
We are still trying to get this whole 2-parent 2-child thing worked out. Andrea wants more time with Megan, and definitely needs some solo time with Megan to stay connected with her. But it's hard when Casey demands so much. Right now they are running to Target together to buy a few grocery items. Not exactly the best 1-1 time. Hopefully there will be a couple more chances this weekend and next week.
Oddly, I've used this paternity leave to become much closer to Megan. I feel like she is honestly listening to me now, and we are having MUCH fewer conflicts. I even bought a few parenting books for some ideas (a first for me!). Mostly they ended up being mirrors of my own "gut instincts" with maybe a little extra advice. The important thing is that even in this short 3 week span, I feel like there is a big change in our interactions. Some times things still get into "crisis" mode, but there is much less of it. Hitting is WAY down, and Megan is very proud of that fact. Throwing things is happening less, or when it does happen, she is usually quick to pick it back up and hand it. Next thing I'm working on is staying by Mom/Dad when we are out places.
If I could summarize these last 3 weeks it would be this: I think I've become a better parent in the last 3 weeks than in the last year. I've been able to identify my problem areas and my weaknesses in my interactions with Megan and turn them around into positive things.
Crazy what happens when you actually have a decent chunk of time to evaluate, work on, and think about a problem. I wasn't exactly ignoring it before, I just didn't interact with Megan enough to realize how bad I really was at interacting with her. I think this shift in focus was exactly what I needed for my birthday.
1 comment:
Happy belated birthday!
It doesn't matter how long it takes to feel as though you've become a better parent as long as you get that feeling. Way to go. :)
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