Stay-at-home Dad

This weekend Stephanie went to Tennessee for a girls getaway with her sister and her mom. Thus leaving me at home alone with the children. This was my first chance at having the kids by myself for more than just a few hours. I was a bit excited to get to abandon the stress of work and spend some much needed quality time with the kids, especially my often neglected (by me) daughter.

I know it's easy for Stephanie (as with all stay-at-home moms) to lose sight of the bigger purpose in what she does. It was easy for me after only three days, as the stress of not being able to accomplish what I wanted to on Sunday eventually eroded my patience, and I lost my cool several times with our persistent three-year-old. Raising kids is not for the faint of heart, especially when its full-time. And for someone like me that can't do two things at once, divided attention between two children is quite the challenge.

Yet, God did bless me with moments of clarity and I got to witness the wonder of his handywork and goodness of his heart. I was the one that got to feed Aubrey this past weekend, and smile as she would lunge towards the bottle, open mouthed, and then grasp it with both hands in eagerness. I held her wobbly body, her little hands grasping my thumbs, and then watch as her little eyes looked around in wonder. I got to stare down into her sweet smiles as her little hand stroked my beard. I was able to receive her coughing laughter as I tickled her on her tummy, and watch her erupt with smiles as she bounced happily in her jumparoo.

"Prince Ijah" and "Sir Will-helm"

And with Elijah, we got a chance to play legos, go swimming together, and create crowns of construction paper for the family. Elijah had made one in Church on Sunday morning and wanted to make one for me and one for "Mama." So that afternoon we got out the craft supplies and held a craft-time. It was fun. Here's a picture of Elijah and me on Tuesday morning eating oatmeal and peaches together with our "helmets."

Tea Block

It wasn't all fun and games. Sunday morning Elijah gave me a scare (and then a laugh). While I was busy getting Aubrey ready for church, Elijah took advantage of the distraction and plundered our kitchen. He found a small ziplock bag (much like we put our snacks in) with a small dark brown block of what appeared to be chocolate. So he unwrapped the delicious looking bar and tried to take a bite. I walked in as he was running out of the kitchen with brown remnants around his mouth. I quickly stopped the child and demanded that he  tell me what he was eating. "Cookie," he replied, then added, "It gose cookie." I then adamantly insisted he show me where he got it, and soon discovered he tried (it's pretty hard) to bite into a solid tea block (see image). That would indeed be a "gose cookie." Serves him right.