Sept. 19th 2014 is a big day in our house. Yes it is our son’s 5th birthday. He will and should get all the attention. But the day marks another important parenting milestone. My wife and I will be celebrating being parents for five years.
We made it! We survived. We are tired.
While Harry enjoys cake, presents and a lot of attention, my wife and I will be silently high-fiving each other on all of our accomplishments or maybe a better way to put it, on our survival.
Harrison was our first. He broke us is. He got us ready for kid 2 and we want to thank him. Charlie should be thanking him as well. I think for kid 2, we have been much more together. Much more ready for whatever would happen.
Parenting has been a wild ride that I would not want to miss out on.
The previous part of my life was great, don’t get me wrong. But ever since that 30 plus hour labour finally ended, our lives changed forever and for the better.
Who knew that a little blonde boy could have so much influence over how our personalities have changed, how our priorities have changed and how our overall lives have changed.
Harry will always be the mark that reminds us when parenthood started. He is the one leading the way as we all learn to figure out each new age age and the experiences they bring.
Up until now, things have been pretty standard. You raise them to be well behaved, polite and social kids. But now the real fun (test) begins. At five they are already their own person. They have opinions, wants, dislikes and all kind of ideas that you won’t like as parents. But they are going to try everything and figure out what is right or wrong. All you can really do is guide them and of course be ready to drive them to the hospital when they try to ski off the top bunk.
Parenting is hard but rewarding. Being tired is part of the grind. The last five years have gone by fast. I have flashbacks to first steps, first words, riding a bike, the first drop off at daycare, the first trip to the ER and of course the thousands of moments in between.
Harry is very much a mini-me. I see so much of him from me. The cool part is, I know from experience what I would like to better about myself and with Harry, I have the chance to optimize.
He used to be a very introverted kid (like me) but the last few months, he has turned into quite the socialite. He talked nicely to strangers he meets, he says goodbye to his friends when leaving and he is no longer afraid to walk up to someone and inquire.
We really need to take some credit for all of this. Katie and I pretty much do anything we can to better the lives of our boys.
It is so cool to watch it all unfold. Raising kids is the ultimate reality show. Every day is a new day of experiences, moments and challenges.
The first five years has been amazing. We feel so fortunate to have a healthy and happy guy. He makes us look great as parents. To be honest, we are just winging it based on what we learned from our parents. I guess we had good examples as well.
So I wish a happy fifth birthday to our first. We are extremely proud of you and what you have become so far.
I am also extremely proud of my wife and myself for making it this far. We must be doing something right.
The proof is in the pudding as they say. We can proudly send our guy out the door each and every day knowing he is going to treat the world with respect and treat people the way he wants to be treated.
As Charlie grows, we know Harry will be the best big brother he can be and help us on our parenting journey.
It has been a blast so far. Let’s keep this train rolling.
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