On Being a Father

It's a little surreal. I have always had it in mind that I'd like to have a child at some point, but that's been a little thought in the back of my mind. Now he's here. Even after we knew he was a boy and we'd seen a few ultrasound images of him, I never had an idea in my mind of what he'd look like. Now I can look at him.


Sometimes when I do look at him I just don't believe it. There he is. 20 years of adulthood (give or take) and 10+ years of marriage to his mother, a bit of difficulty, and then nine months of preparing, and there he is, sleeping.

Things more experienced folks would tell me about fatherhood have, mostly, come true - but not exactly as expected. The lack of sleep everyone talks about - it's real, but it's not that big of a deal. I was concerned that I'd turn into a zombie by the second week, but instead, we got into a bit of a rhythm. People said my life would no longer be my own - it would be all about the boy. That's also mostly true, but it's not this wrestling match to get my old life back. We make small adjustments and we can do pretty much exactly what we had always been doing.



The biggest thing I learned when we got Nina (our dog) was that it wasn't all about training her; the best success came when I figured out how to adjust my way of thinking a bit, too. Now if I could just understand why she thinks dirty diapers are delicious...