Putting my 3 year old boy to bed, he asks me, "Daddy, where does the Moon come from?" My head immediately fires off possible answers:
- The Angels hung the Moon.
- That's God's baseball after he made a home run.
- That's the Earth's sister, watching over us all.
My answer:
"The Moon was actually a part of the Earth that was knocked off when a biiig rock from space came and hit the Earth."
Clever, I thought. Science is usually less interesting than alot of fairy tales, but the story of the Moon is quite spectacular. My boy, lying in bed sucking his thumb looks thoughtful, and a little worried. I then told him about how the dinosaurs are no longer around and how that's a good thing, because (while they're really cool to think about) some were kinda dangerous. I'm realizing that I'm rapidly painting myself into a very scary corner with scientific facts and that, rather than soothing him, I was starting to paint scary pictures in his head:
The birth of the moon:
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The dinosaurs:
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He was sucking his thumb furiously.
Waving my hand in the air and laughing, I quickly say, "Daddy was just kidding! The Angels hung the Moon and the Dinosaurs were like puppy dogs are today!"
The birth of the moon:
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The dinosaurs:
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All is right with the world.
Goodnight, little buddy!
©2012
Preschool Orientation
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010Well... That time has come for us as parents to watch our little boy move on in the world. His first day of orientation at preschool. Cathy and I were there with him, as were all of his classmates and their parents. I saw many tears welling in the parents' eyes as we saw our children meeting and playing with each other.
We're kind of worried because John (not his real name) is not really 100% potty trained and we're both really working hard to keep on top of his training before the first day of school. Because if he decides to poop in his pants at preschool he'll get sent home... for the year! So we're kinda doing a cram-session with him right now. He poops-in-the-potty and he gets to go do stuff, play on the computer or the ipod- he poops his pants, all of them get taken away until he uses the potty again. We've tried everything else and we're desperate!
I guess it really hit me when we all went shopping for his new bed he'll be sleeping on this year. A big-boy (twin) bed! He was so excited to pick it out! Delivery will happen tomorrow. I still see him as my little 3 year old, but that was a long time ago (about 2 months) and he has grown so much.
I know it's common for parents to get emotional send their kids off to school, but I was really hit hard with it. Talking with a dad that just sent their kids off to college made me feel better though. He said that they're able to do a lot more stuff and have had a lot more time. Sure, it was depressing at first, but regaining some semblance of your life without kids was kinda nice.
Our little boy... all grown up! I just hope he drives safely.
Tags: dad, father, fatherhood
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