Friday, September 14, 2007

A Day With My Son

Well, the special event at work that has been consuming all of my free time is finally over, and while the clean-up is almost more work than the day itself, at least I've been able to get some sleep and spend time with my family. As a matter of fact, I'm taking today off to have some father-and-son time with Chunk, something I've been looking forward to doing for a couple of weeks now.

It's a strange feeling. Although I know my status as a dad wasn't taken away from me, at the same time I feel like I haven't really been much of a dad for the past month. Sure, I've made sure he's had something to eat, I've gotten him in the bath, told him that he wasn't allowed to smoke in bed, all the important things, but I haven't been much of a father, in terms of being there for my son. When he's grabbed me by the arm and shouted, in that shrill little voice, "Daddy, daddy, let me show ya!" I've just answered him with a grunt and more typing, rather than dropping everything and following him into his room to see whatever it is he's currently excited about. So, as weird as it sounds, I feel like today is my day. Maybe its not enough to make up for a month of being preoccupied, but it's something, and I plan on enjoying it.

My original plan was to take him to see "Underdog." I'm aware that its probably one of the worst movies of the year, but during our first movie experience as a family ("Ratatootie" a couple of months ago) we saw the trailer for "Underdog" and Chunk very nearly exploded. "It's a dog superhero!" he screamed, pointing frantically at the screen, and checking to make sure I was paying attention. Have we talked about his love of all things spandex wearing? Have we talked about his fascination for dogs? "Underdog," while undoubtedly bad, looked like a perfect film for him, but alas, it looks like it's already come and gone. The only theater showing it in town is the Cinema Latino de Aurora and I think its been dubbed into Spanish. Chunk probably wouldn't mind, but my Spanish is pretty rusty and I want to be able to follow the intricate plot and subtle character development.

More soon. For better or worse, I seem to be back.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just goes to show Dads have it rough too. This morning Babyhead was awake when DH was getting ready for work (he was going in late today) and started babbling about Cars and McQueen and Mac. I got an email later that DH was do happy and thought it cool that Babyhead was babbling to him ths morning. I could see the excitement in his email. lol He was also upset that yesterday Babyhead woke up SCREAMING for daddy right after DH left. He said I should have called him so he could have come home for a few minutes.

Have fun today! I am sure Chunk won't mind whatever you guys do as long as it is together.

:-)

Dad Stuff said...

Good job, Chunk, on giving Daddy a good day.

Our family had a similar good day with a bad movie, when we went to see 'Daddy Day Camp'.
The kids loved it. I got to eat some rockin' popcorn.

Unknown said...

Awww, days alone with a parent are awesome!

JD said...

Underdog is STILL at the Elvis cinema in Arvada. At least it was last week.