Your eyes do not deceive you. After a little over a month,
I'm finally writing another #DaddyWrite post. I'm sure my little layoff makes
sense to anyone who has ever had a newborn in the house. That's especially true
when you take the presence of Ellie into account as well.
By the time it's all said and done, if Bethany and I have
kept Ethan safe from his big sister for an entire day, that's a win. It doesn't
matter if we have dishes that haven't been done or laundry that hasn't been
done because priority #1 is keeping both kids happy, healthy, and safe.
Therefore, as you can imagine, keeping up with a semi-vanity project like
#DaddyWrite falls down the to-do list slightly.
In all seriousness, there is an importance to #DaddyWrite in
that it gives us a practical tool with which to look back on the childhoods of
Ellie and Ethan someday. That's probably the exact reason why Bethany has been
strongly encouraging me to write again. For the record, there is a huge difference
between strongly encouraging and nagging.
While I could choose to write about our family trip to the
zoo today, I feel there's an importance in actually discussing what life has
been like at home for the past month as a family of four. Spoiler alert, it's
been somewhat less than easy.
For one, even something simple like putting Ellie to bed has
changed dramatically. It used to be that the three of us would all hang out in
her room with the girls sitting in Ellie's rocking chair reading books while I
sat in the extra-manly, furry, pink chair on the other side of the room. Once
books were finished, we would spend time praying together as a family before I finally would tuck Ellie in and call
it a night. Now, Ellie is lucky to get one of us in her room for Operation
Bedtime while the other takes care of Ethan.
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| With any luck, Ellie will be doing this soon. |
That's not the only thing that has changed for Ellie as
she's had to learn to share her mother with her brother. You wouldn't think
that would have been a big issue since she still had me around but it's
actually been quite difficult. For the first six weeks of Bethany's maternity
leave, Ellie and I spent most of our time engaged in battle over me trying in
vain to get her to do something and her refusing.
My personal favorite battle revolved around me trying to get
her to put on her pajamas. We spent forty-five minutes locked in the bathroom with
Ellie kicking and screaming. What was my response? To watch NCAA Tournament
games on my phone, only looking up during commercials to ask if she was ready for
my help. That question was generally met with louder and more intense
screaming.
The most difficult part of the transition has actually been
the arguing for Bethany and me. Between the lack of sleep and heightened
emotions, we've found ourselves bickering a lot more than normal which
definitely led to some hard feelings. It's ok though because even though we've
had some hard conversations, we're back in a really good place right now or at
least I feel that way. I'm assuming Bethany does as well.
I don't want you thinking that all of our difficulties are
due to Ethan's arrival. For Ellie, her biggest struggle in life can sometimes
come from eating a simple taco. We've all been there. We're taking bite after
savory bit of taco goodness when out of nowhere, a big pile of filling plunges
out the opposite end onto the plate below. While adults simply take a fork and
eat the "leftovers" once the taco is consumed, Ellie's response is
slightly different.
"Oh no, my
taco!"
On a positive note though, whenever something hard happens
tomorrow, I now have something I can think of guaranteed to bring a smile to my
face. "Oh no, my taco!"
#DaddyWrite
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