Hey, that is me and yes, I am going to brag about how awesome I am and all the things I do as a dad. I know, in the past, I have written a lot of Odes to my wife, but this will be the first Ode to me. I am basically doing this because I have nothing else on my mind to write about!
Actually, now that I am thinking about this, my brain is eager to get some stuff written down. So, here it goes.
During the weekdays, I am downstairs getting ready to login to work right around the time Niko wakes up. I make him drinks and breakfast and make sure he is OK, and I move my work from operations to the kitchen island so I can be next to him. During the weekends, I wake up when he gets up. I let Nina sleep in as she needs it; she isn’t the best sleeper and often it takes her a long time to fall asleep. That is also why I have been getting up around 2 am so Niko could do a quick pee. I can easily fall back to sleep.
Throughout the day on the weekdays, Nina and I tag team on playing with him and feeding him. On the weekends, Nina does other things like working, cooking, sewing, and relaxing so I get a lot of time with Niko and I absolutely love every minute.
When I get done with work at 4 pm on the weekdays, I take over as the parent in charge as again Nina does other things. Niko and I eat, play, get clean, and relax in his bed before sleepy time. While we are in bed, I tell him imaginary stores about anything he chooses and lately, it has either been about ways I hurt myself, his superhero powers, or his tile house he has built. Then, a few minutes later, Nina joins us and she reads an actual real book for a few minutes. Right now, we are reading from the Roald Dahl collection.
For the past few days, we have been playing with his jenga blocks on a table on the front porch. He likes building things with them and likes it even more when I build something out of a few jenga blocks so he can knock them down. Every morning, we look outside to see if they have fallen over. That table was on the sidewalk at one of our neighbors’ houses after they moved out and I saw it and carried it to our house!
When we do eat together; for whatever meal or time of the day, he is very specific in his food requests. Even though I know what he likes and dislikes, I still like to ask him. I know he doesn’t like pepper, but on Friday morning, he had one of my breakfast tacos and it had pepper in it. I didn’t say anything about it till the next day and we was like, um OK. I don’t mind catering to him, and I always take care of his needs first and then I can take care of myself.
Once Niko is sleeping, I do house things of folding and putting away all the laundry, taking the trash out, and cleaning the kitchen. I have always been a cleaner in the kitchen since we have been married. I tell Nina that she can cook all she wants and make a huge mess and not worry about the cleanup. I can also cook if needed and make a mean pot of pasta! Sometimes when Niko and I eat dinner and I cook something, I will send a message to Nina that says, hot food! In a flash, I hear her feet moving upstairs and she is downstairs very quickly with a happy look on her face and is glad to have hot food.
Then after all that, I can finally do my things like writing and reading! Around 9 pm, I am ready to call it a day and go upstairs to go to sleep. Then, the next thing that happens is my 2 am alarm for a Niko pee. After that, my alarm is set for 7 am for work or if the weekend, I get woken up Niko around that same time. I have an audio monitor on my night table, and I can hear him get up and open the door. I then hear his music louder and louder and louder as he approaches our bedroom. I see him and say hi and he says hi back in a whisper. I gather my stuff and shut the bedroom door and it’s go time for me!
Last night, as I was relaxing with him in his bed before sleepy time, I asked him if he wanted to add anything to this and this is what he said, “I throw him out the window and he survives by landing in a jello truck.”
I do a lot of things and I just want to say thanks to me.
