Miscommunication

If you have a kid with an ex, the day will come when wires get crossed and communications get missed. Although it’s easy to get one’s feathers all ruffled, as long as everything works out… let it go and laugh about it, because odds are that in hindsight, it’s actually funny.

Today, Kate’s mom left the country on a one week vacation. I knew she would be leaving sometime between today and two days from now, but never got the final confirmation of the dates… To my surprise… today was the day. Thank God for Facebook, saw a wall post she left on a friend’s wall and that’s how I figured out she had left. Now, she might very well have sent me an email with the details, but it just so happens that my mail server went down a few days ago and took quite a few emails with it… timing has never been good to me

A bit of running around after work and it all got sorted out. No harm, now foul.

Best Father’s Day gift EVER

Yesterday was Father’s Day (happy belayed Father’s Day to all the Dads out there). Kate made me breakfast in bed which consisted of a bowl of Cherios with a 1/4 of All Bran (she knows what I like). I also got a beautiful card and a little clay figurine of her (she made both).

But the best gift came in the form of hand made door knob hanger. It’s “do not disturb” sign so that Daddy can sleep in on weekends How cool is that?!?!

Game night…

Tonight was game night with Kate, yes, I put my laptop away and the two of us played games all evening. It was a great time. One of the games we played was a board game at which I sucked, she won hands down… that game was “Perfect Wedding”… How fitting…

Has it been THAT long???

Well, seems like I’ve been away for a while now. I guess life’s been really busy lately with work and other more social thing. As a matter of fact, it has been so long that my admin interface for this blog has changed… Well time to get back to writing.

Came back to write a quick post here, because it stuck me how much our interaction with friends has changed in the past few year with Web 2.0 and all. I just found out that Kate’s mom is in labour, not by getting a phone call, email, or text message. Nope… I read her status on Facebook. I can’t help but giggle just a bit at the thought of a pregnant woman updating her FB status while rushing the father-to-be to pack the car and not forget the extra blanket

Anyhoo, best wishes to Kate’s mom, hope it’s an easy labour and all the best to you and your new addition. Now to go and wish her well on Facebook too…

Good eats

Stopped in Mississauga today on my way back home to have dinner with my mom. We went to the Spoon and Fork for dinner, by the name, I fully expected a greasy spoon (and maybe fork too) joint. Turns out to be one of the best Thai and Viet restaurant I’ve ever eaten at and very reasonably priced with most main courses around $15. I had the curried lamb and it was absolutely yummy!

Thanks for introducing me to yet another good restaurant mom

Generation gap

My mom and brother were over for lunch today. We got to talking about the Interweb as we sometimes do and I mention that Darth Vader has a Twitter account. I pulled it up on my laptop and after spending 5 minutes explaining Twitter to my mom, let the two of them read it.

5 minutes later, my mom looks up with a big smile on her face and says “I don’t get it, can you explain it again?”

It’s funny how extremely different our times are now compared to even 10 years ago.

Didn’t need to hear that…

Kate and I went to a fast food joint today for dinner. I don’t like to do that, since I like to eat better the that most days. She ordered a kids meal and then proceeded to ask the cashier: “Can I have mine with a boy-toy?”

May I never hear her utter those words again

Through a child’s eye

As some of you might know, I have a 7 year old daughter. If you have children and you ever sit down to watch a family movie with them, stop watching for a moment and take a close look at your children as they’re watching. The way they emote is priceless, you can truly gain a new perspective on the movie you’re watching.

Oh, pick a good kids movie

Alice in Wonderland

I was watching Alice in Wonderland today with Kate. It struck me that quite a few of the characters in this animated movie smoke. How times have changed…

Bad day

Today just plain sucked. On Tuesday we told my daughter that my wife and I are getting divorced. She took it as good as could be expected, I completely expected her to bury most of it and to have it resurface later. Well, it’s starting to resurface. I can’t help it, but there’s no way I can feel like I’m anything but a really bad parent, knowing that my actions are hurting my daughter. I know that staying together with my wife and having both of us be miserable would be even worst for my daughter, but it doesn’t change the way I feel.

My daughter was crying tonight, because her family is broken and things won’t ever be the same. I tried to re-assure her as much as possible that things will be ok, that she’ll still get to see Maria. I told her, that she’s right, things have changed and won’t be the same. I know how hard this is on me, I can’t imagine how this must be on her. She had no say in it. All she knows is that from now on she’ll get to see Maria once every 2 weeks or so and it’s not her fault and there’s nothing she can do to change that. Seeing Kate crying and feeling the way she does is just breaking my heart. It’s almost bad enough that I’ve had thoughts or running back to Maria and asking her to come back. Of course, that won’t help anything, but I can’t stand to see Kate getting hurt, much less when I know I’m the cause of that.

I hope she doesn’t end up hating me. I hope I can keep some semblance of a family unit here.

I also find it very hard to stay positive and supportive for Kate when I feel as bad as I do. Everything I’ve been told as a man has been to suck it up, don’t cry, be strong. Is that going to make me come across to Kate as being uncaring. I’m sure that’s the impression Maria has gotten about me. I find myself, for the first time, not really knowing what to do as a parent and that really scares me.

While writing this, Kate came down to show me that she just lost a tooth, she was all excited and happy again, as if nothing was wrong. It did brighten up my evening. And now… I get to put on fairy wings and play the tooth fairy for the first time ever.

In conclusion, being a parent is hard work and sometimes a painful job, but it’s still the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done