TMI Thursday: My Life As a Parent

I had a running joke that once a friend of mine got married, I never talked to them again. Unfortunately, this really wasn’t a joke as I lost touch with many of my friends throughout my 20s after attending their weddings. They moved on with their lives, and maybe I wanted to remember our friendship as it was when we were in high school or college. Soon, my friends started having kids, and in many cases, this made keeping in touch difficult, especially if they lived out of town. Now that I’ve been a parent for approximately two months, I understand why.

Since my child was born, I have not read any books, played XBOX, worked as a soccer referee, or done any type of exercise unless you count sprinting for the bus or Metro or walking up and down stairs to do laundry. I received the movie The Other Guys from Netflix in mid-March but only watched it this past weekend. My DVR has filled up quickly, and it’s so bad that I haven’t even watched the two Paul Reiser Show episodes yet, even though NBC announced several weeks ago that the show has been cancelled. I finally cut my toe nails, but only after they reached epic length. I recently discovered that my “postage stamp” front yard is a disaster. Fortunately, we’re having a high school kid take care of it. My car is overdue for an oil change. There have been countless times when I search all over the place for certain objects (toothpaste is the usual culprit) even though it is directly in front of me. What I really need is a full night of sleep, something that hasn’t happened since our child arrived. So if I’m slow to reply to e-mails, I update my blog less often or seem a little short on the phone, it’s not you, it’s me.

It may sound like I’m complaining, but I like being a dad. It’s amazing how much our child has grown already and how much I love him. Of course, it would be great if he would sleep for significantly longer stretches. Controlling his neck would also be a plus.