A Storm Blew In…

Last night, a few hours ago, various types of storms blew in from all directions. It is 3.30 am, and I am typing a post! I am doing this because it is fresh in my mind or is it because my mind is still fairly fresh? The obvious part of this story is the real cold front that reached us last night, and came in with a huff and a puff, strong winds, temperature dropped by 10 degrees C, but not much else so far. In Cape Town, there is localized flooding, some areas are getting snow, I expected more, but maybe this part is still coming.   Another storm came in the form of mommy. We were both excited, well, I was from early Friday, also anxious, because of the issues with all the airplanes in the world, you get nervous, and just want her to be back home. In any case, I think our 13 month son picked up on the excitement and also seemed to be excited yesterday. Mom arrived and I kept him awake for it, as she walked in, he came around the corner and froze. Mom, in tears and overjoyed, grabbed him, hugged and kisses followed. He was just stunned at the rush of estrogen in the house. After about 10 minutes, his little brain computed what had just happened and he suddenly started running and then came and stood in front of us, smiling and grabbing mom by the legs, ran away again, came back, same procedure. There is something else that happened, the family is back together, I am not a single parent anymore, I am a husband and a dad. To that end, a few thoughts. For a week, and this is very nearly every week, I make decisions around our son, suddenly another decision-maker is in the house. This normally is not an issue, as mom falls in with what is happening and we are fairly aligned with things involving our son. She does do things a little different, which is not bad, in fact, I think it is great for both the boys. Although there is a deep bond between the boys, there is the wonderful bond of "a mother and child", I saw that last night again and I just realized how important the loving touches are for him and me. I would not be surprised to know that a man developed the "King size bed". Not sure how many men get allocated 1/3rd of the bed in the bedroom, I know my dad always joked about that, but after sleeping alone, suddenly we are in the same bed again, takes some getting used to. She slept like a log on her 2/3rd, I slept 1 and half hours on my bit. I am not complaining, just saying. The best part is not having to be there all the time for at least 48 hours, giving me a little break, mentally, but this is also something to get used to for both of us, because mom need to realize that a toddler is busy, especially those little hands. I guess my point in this post would be that a traveling, working parent brings other factors into the equation. It is not just the bonding and giving parents and child a chance to bond again that is important, it is the constant changes in the household, between the parents and not to mention the growing and ever-changing toddler, what is good today, may not be tomorrow. We are lucky to have a 17 year start on our marriage, but still, it is a constant process of talking, understanding, compromising, making little adjustments within a fluid environment of being parents and spouses.