Renowned Sea Voyagers

It makes sense why parents place aside their hobbies to focus their attention on the little ones. This blog is one example. Because although I would enjoy to sit and write about the many great memories each day brings; technically this blog falls under the hobbies category. However there is a one particular story that I want to make sure is not forgotten.

Where do I start? I woke up in the morning feeling a bit tired from not having rest enough.. Ok let's skip forward several hours. I somehow had made it my goal to visit every park in Bellevue during my last couple years of living there... Nope, let's skip another hour of just rambling. We arrived at Clyde Beach Park after enjoying a leisurely Saturday afternoon drive. The park is situated nicely between a quiet neighborhood and Lake Washington. Traci took Ben to the pirate ship play set and I quietly enjoyed a granola bar in the parking lot while Joey rested a few more minutes. While the Captain and the First Mate (Traci and Ben) explored the shores of Meydenbauer Bay aboard their pirate ship, they came across the lost T-Rex dating from the Late Cretaceous era. Being renowned sea voyagers across the seven seas, they used their years of experience to befriend the 65 million year old predator and played around the park for a little while and eventually the First Mate decided to take him home.

Moving on, Ben is at the stage where he is questioning everything and curious about his surrounding. Why is the moon still up during the day? Why did the moth fly inside the car? How come we can't visit Miss Heidi right now? Why can't I watch more TV? How come mommy's has to go to work? How come we have to fix the car? How come this car is old? The list goes on. It's great. I love all the questions. On this particular day, there were many questions revolving the T-Rex and why was it left at the park. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that the T-Rex was left behind by a kid and perhaps this kid would return in search of his lost toy. Ben explained to us that if he left a toy at the park, he wouldn't want anyone to take it. I'm honestly not making this up. As a matter of fact, after two hours of taking this dinosaur from the park, we returned back to the park right at dusk and Ben placed the T-Rex exactly were he found it. Neither did Traci or I nudged him towards returning it or attempted in teaching Ben a lesson. He made the decision on his own to return what didn't belong to him... Yes! That's my son right there! My son!

So despite that parenting engulfs my life as my two boys demand my attention; it's moments like these that I'm happy to place my hobbies to the side.

3 months - It doesn't seem fair.

A week ago we celebrated Joey's 3 months birthday... and it doesn't seem fair. I somehow had made up my mind that everything was under control. After all (deep sigh), I've done this before. Yet every Tuesday the garbage truck drives by our neighborhood and gradually picks any knowledge I had obtained on raising kids. Yep. It's Parenting 101 back in this house. He slept amazingly the first couple of months but perhaps ... well let's just say that he should be sleeping more than his brother is. I just don't get it.

So tiring? Yes. It's like a muffler shop at our place. It's just exhausting. (Notice the dad joke to keep the mood light.) But once again I catch myself wishing that the moments I hold Joey in my arms as I rock him to sleep will never end. If only I could grasp these moments and replay them over and over again. So despite how draining it is to raise two boys, Joey completes our family... or as big brother likes to sing... "With Joey in the family, happy happy home..."