July 2014

I sit and watch in amazement as I watch my boys go throughout their day. What a difference time makes. And by time I mean weeks and days. There is such an amazing difference in just last week in the boys and what they are doing.

I see my sons literally growing up right in front of my eyes and I wonder where the time has gone? As we go through the cycle of potty training, learning manners, etc. I just sit back at what they are learning and more importantly, how they are growing up and using what we are teaching them.

As the days pass, they will become even more independent on us and will be able to do even more on their own. But until that day comes, I want to slow down the growing up process and hold onto my little boys for a little longer.

Today was a hard day for me and maybe one of the hardest as a father. We took the boys to their second week of gymnastics. The class was relatively small and they were the only boys there, I guess they were also the youngest too.

Class started and within 5 minutes Baby B was up running around. At first, I thought that he would stop, but quickly it became a game. But worse than that, it was a distraction. It was a distraction to the other kids and to the teacher and it wasn’t fair to them. So after I was able to get him, we walked outside and talked and I explained that if he misbehaved again, that he would not return to the class.

We got back in and for 5-10 minutes he listened and even participated, but that didn’t last. Up and running and I was done. I was able to get him after he made two laps around the class and that was it. I took him into the nursery area and got him checked in. I made it back to the gymnastics class to see Baby A listening and having a lot of fun. He was doing flips and jumping over little mats.

So after the class, I go back to pickup Baby B, only to see that he had been put in time out for not listening. He didn’t listen in the class or in the nursery and I felt like a failure as a parent.

As we left, I called my mom and told her about my day and how I felt like a failure. And she reminded me that sometimes as parents, we have hard days and that those hard days only make us better parents in the long run.

Growing Up

Hard Day