I scripted 9 rows this morning, and then proceeded to pencil them all and ink four of them. Let’s see… that’s 22 rows done in one day. Not bad.
I would have gotten more done, but my phone rang halfway through inking the fifth. I was at The Keep, and it was 6:00pm-ish, and Patches (my three-year-old) was sad and wanted to know where Daddy was.
We talked on the phone, and he said he wanted to play The “Hey” Game. And I realized that while I probably COULD crank out another two or three strips, my hand was hurting, and so was my son. Time to call it a day.
I drove home, and the moment I walked through the door he grabbed his blanket and ran into my room and plopped down on the bed. The “Hey” Game goes like this: I lie down to take a nap, and he comes in and offers me one of his treasured blue blankies. I snuggle it, then he steals it back, and I say “Hey!”
Repeat.
There are variations. Sometimes he throws the blanket across the bed and I have to try to catch it. Sometimes he steals my spot on the bed before I can get there, and I’m expected to lie down on Sandra’s side of the bed and complain loudly (“HEEEY!!!”) Usually The “Hey” Game ends when I announce that I really would like to get on with the nap, and he gives me a hug, heads out of the room, and shuts the door. This evening I wasn’t about to take a nap starting at 6:30pm, so we played until I actually started to get tired enough to take a nap, at which point I got up and had some dinner. Gleek participated in the game, too, gleefully throwing blankets around, and by the time I left the two of them were happily playing with each other.
This is why I left Novell 18 months ago, even though I didn’t know it at the time.
The Hey game makes me happy.
Organic games
It’s funny how hard it is to teach our 3-year old a REAL game, versus how quickly something funny becomes a new game to always be played.
Our current game-of-the-month is “THAT’S not a hug!” in which Madison jumps up to give me a hug, but props her knees in the way, or butts heads, or doesn’t hug back. (If I don’t realize we’re playing it, she’ll tell me, “You have to say, ‘THAT’S not a hug!'”)
We then name whatever she did. That part is usually my job (“THAT’S not a hug! That’s a fall-backwards!”), but if I forget she’s happy to take that over.
I can’t imagine it any other way…
My job is work from home.
The downside of essentially always being at work (and since I’m in IT there’s always something that needs doing at 9pm…) is completely overwhelmed by the upside of getting so much extra time with my 2 and half year old.
I see other people with the same aged child who head off to work before or soon after the child wakes up and get home just in time to say good night. Not to mention those who spend most of their time travelling.
A sacrifice I can’t even imagine making anymore.
I hope I can find a way to spend so much time with my daughter when she arives (due June 19th!) I worry that she’ll forget who I am with my 12hr days. { : p Gotta get that better degree!
You are such a great dad.
Hugs and carrys
Youngest (girl) used to be small enough to be carried up to bed by daddy.
The standard dialog involved Daddy grunting, then asking what she had been eating, since she was SOOOOO heavy.
“Rocks” was the standard answer since the day she started talking–followed by lots of giggles.
Keep up the close contact and lovely games–they all grow up too darn fast…