Yesterday my family and I went to my nephew’s 3rd birthday party at Chucky Cheese in Scottsdale, AZ. Although this may not seem like a highlight in my previous life but now a day’s these are the events that I hold important in my life. My niece and her husband also have another son who is 7 and she is expecting another child in March and I can tell you it is an absolute pleasure watching this young family grow much of the way Joan and I did many years ago. I learn so much about these two young children in the way have developed and grown in the past year, it better helps me understand how our children grew and matured when they were that age. The 3 year old is full of energy and can be mischievous at times and the 7 year old is quite the thinker and is always observing and taking everything in. Both of these children have no idea of what it means to me to watch them as they interact with each other and also with me and my family.
It is so important for me to walk in the footsteps of my previous life to learn and feel some of the same emotions that I must have felt when we raised our own children. An example of this was when the 3 year old saw Chucky who is a large mouse character and was frightened by him and ran for the comfort of his mother and immediately was pacified by her comfort. It made me feel the emotion of safety that I must have provided my children when they were scared. I could picture myself and Joan providing the same level of protection and comfort to make them feel cared for and loved.
For the past few months my niece has tried to get permission from her doctor to allow me in the delivery room when she gives birth to her third child but that dream has been put on hold for now with the decision from the hospital that only one person can be in the room for the birth. That privilege is going to my other niece and I am sure it will be one that she will treasure forever. With that door closing my daughter Taylor opened another door in my life by telling me that she would want me to be in the room with her when she gives birth to her first born. As a father I can only tell you that this was a very special moment in my life. Being in the same room with my daughter giving birth to my grandchild would be an incredible experience that will allow me to relive what I must have felt seeing my child for the first time coming into this world. Although my daughter is only 18 and just starting her adult life and by no means am I rushing the fact that I want her to grow up but I am looking forward to the day that she will become a wife and a mother, because of what I have seen of her in the past year and what I have been told about her 17 years prior I am sure that she will become an excellent wife and mother, just like her mother has.