Here goes nothing!

Leighton has been talking about starting a blog for quite a while now. Me? Not so much. I really do not like other people reading what I write. I worry too much about how it’s written. I write and rewrite. Is the punctuation correct? Did I give too many details? Is what I have to say interesting enough for someone else to read? What can I say; I’m a perfectionist. I come by it naturally. My mother is a perfectionist. My grandmother is a perfectionist. Even my little girl is a budding perfectionist. Having three kids has taught me though that I can’t always be a “perfectionist”. Toys on the floor, clothes in a basket, dishes in the sink. Now mind you, the house is usually clean, but there are those days. I am learning to accept it, but I’m much happier when things are in order.

That being said, I will try to write about what I do and love most, if you, the reader, will try to overlook my quirks. Deal?

So it begins... (or began)

So it begins... each beginning is always different. We all want that story that is more interesting than anyone else could dream up. We seek bragging rights on the best experience, most adventurous travel, or the influential outcome. Well, I don’t break that mold. I like having the best, greatest, and bravest stories out there, so whether you agree with me or not I have the best one. What beginning am I going to tell you about? Well, it’s a parenting blog, so why not about our start as parents.

We had been married for nearly two years when my wife began to realize that she was pregnant. She wasn’t totally sure, she didn’t know exactly how it felt to be pregnant since it was her first time after all. When she finally took the at home test, it was positive. She decided to confuse me to tell me. I came down to the bedroom and there she sat on the bed teary eyed with a bib. She hands me the bib, which says, “I love my Daddy!” All I can do is look at it. I had no idea what this meant. I looked at the bib and then looked at her and back to the bib again. This whole time with a puzzled stare on my face. She began to look somewhat amazed at my stupidity or shallow mindedness or something. After a long moment it clicked and she didn’t have to tell me. A look of shock, awe, joy, and amazement came across my face and I got all excited. It really wasn’t until the baby came that the reality of being a parent sank in.

It was just after one in the morning when Erika, my wife, woke me with the news that she needed to go to the hospital, it was time. All the excitement and adrenaline came rushing into me at once. I leaped from the bed and began to get dressed throwing everything together to go to the hospital the whole time being told to slow down, we didn’t need to be in a rush just yet. I didn’t care, I was getting antsy for my baby to come and now it was just moments away. If I didn’t hurry and get her to the hospital then the baby was gonna take longer to come, we had to hurry. After making sure we had all we needed, alerting her parents of the soon coming grandchild, and informing the officer of my reason for doing ten over we finally made to the maternity ward and began the wait. We argued with nurses and doctors over this and that and its necessity and we waited.  Five whole hours we waited until finally at 7:14 am Jacob Michael Leaf was born. Weighing in at an amazing, whopping six pounds eight ounces and measuring twenty inches long, he came over two weeks early on December 1, 2005. He came and immediately began wreaking havoc pulling off all the monitors the nurses put on him in the ICU, and he continues today to wreak havoc at home. Nearly sending his mother insane some days, although he seems to do a little better than his sister any more. Her birth is a story of its own, but that will be another time.

Obviously I left out details, but this is how we first became the parents of a highly active child and began Raising Leafs. There is nothing you can say to convince me that my start to parenting is anywhere less interesting than yours.