Sick Day.

I'm not a panicky parent. I don't freak out too often about stuff.

At least, I don't think do.

Sure, if a kid walks in the room with a staple driven through her gums (like my sister once did), I'm going to freak the freaking freak out!  If Eliza, our 4 month old, were to hover above our bed, covered in blood, then I'm going to lose my mind.  Not saying I see that happening, but you know, babies are weird sometimes.

Today, Evie had a sore throat and complained that her neck hurt.  Immediately, my wife made a doctor appointment and called the school to let them know she would not be there today.

I took her to the doctor because, to quote my wife, "any time a child complains about their neck hurting, you should take them to the doctor because there could be a spinal injury!"

Now, it isn't like Evie's been playing full contact football. She barely watched half of the Super Bowl.  But, she does get dinged up as kids do, so I agreed to take her.

Nothing was wrong. She's got a cold.  That's it.

So she stayed home with me for the whole day for no reason, and it was fun.  We went to Burger King and got a little snack. We binge-watched some tv on Netflix.  We drove to Mandan so I could see about trading my iPhone for a Galaxy S6 (ended up backing out on the deal because the seller's phone was a little too scuffed up).  It was a good day, overall.

I'm not complaining that my wife was concerned.  I'm glad she is. It evens us out when my attitude is, "Meh, she's probably not gonna die from it."  I'm pretty grateful she keeps our kids from "probably not dying."

Time Flies When You Don't Blog

I've repeatedly said I'm going to start blogging again and failed to do it, so let's have none of that.

Let's begin with... what all has happened since I last blogged?

Lost a lot of weight.Got a new job in a new state. Moved. Was laid off. Went through a period of feeling sorry for myself. Gained weight back. Got another new job. Wife got a new job. Had kid number 2.

That's about it.

Here we are.  Oh, and I also tried starting a YouTube channel that got maybe 50 views.  You may have seen some of them.

So what will I talk about now that I'm "back?"

Kid number 2. Kid Number 1. Life, the universe, and everything.

Being a dad in this day and age is hard work, even with a very present wife to share the load with.  I'll talk about that in a later blog, I think, but not today.  Today, I end this blog here.

I'm back. Again. For real this time. Maybe. Sort of.

Habitually Trying To Get Back Into Blogging

I constantly tell myself I need to get back to my blog.

I need to sit down and write and move on with my life and put the past behind me and finally let go. This one blog post, probably the last I really threw my heart into, was re-read today. By me. It's been a while now, and I think I'm ready to start writing again. We have made so many happy memories since then with the child we do have, I have to get over the one that we don't.

Also, when re-reading that, I realized there are several spelling and grammar errors so if you read it and want to carve your eyes out with a fork - I understand.

So what to say? What to talk about? Hmmmm...

My daughter.

This kid is a joy. In fact, I am almost convinced she is pure joy personified. That, or she is sneaking candy when we aren't looking, but for now we'll just say she's a happy kid.

She's 3 and a half now, and starting to really show her personality. She looks like her mom, and often shows her mom's attitude, but there is so much of my geekiness in her it is so hard not to be proud. In fact, if you look at the pictures I posted before I sat down to write this, you may notice we had a lightsaber fight. This is actually the third time in the past few weeks we've been able to get outside and work on her Jedi/Sith skills. I'm actually quite proud of the fact that she wants to play with the toy light swords.

Sometimes, unexpectedly, my heart will melt when I pick her up from daycare and hear, "Daddy, I wanna watch Star Wars" from the back seat.

But then, then there are scenes like this.

I feel like a parent who does a pretty good job, but when you sit down to pray before a meal with your family, and your daughter offers to pray, or she starts to actually ask questions like, "Where is God?" and "Where is Jesus" it makes me pretty happy. It helps that I feel like I'm prepared to answer those questions, or at least break them down to a level she can understand.

Recently, at the dinner table, she prayed the whole "God is great, God is good, thank you God for this food" prayer, and when I prayed differently, she tried correcting me and told me that's not how you're supposed to pray. Imagine me, this 31 year old bearded sasquatch sitting down with this tiny 3 year old and explaining the intricacies of prayer, and why it's okay to pray your own way, because God hears the prayers of his children. What's crazy is that she understood it. The way I explained it must have clicked perfectly because she hasn't tried correcting anyone on how they pray, and has even expanded a little on her own prayers. Okay, they all still begin with "God is great, God is good, thank you God for this food" even when it's night time prayers and she's about to go to sleep, but hey, progress is progress.

Today, after we had our lightsaber fight, we went to Taco Bell and had lunch. I realized it's the first time we've been able to sit down one-on-one in a while. The lunches we used to have every Friday have dissolved since I transferred to my new job and new schedule. It really reminded me of why I loved them.

I got to sit there and talk to my daughter about anything. Mostly, the conversation was about the cinnamon twists and why Daddy wouldn't share ALL of his Doritos (she got half the bag, by the way). But it was nice just hearing the little girl across the table from me talk about anything she wanted.

Long story short, I'm going to try and blog more often. Again.