These Are The Days

I had one of the best days ever with Caz today. From the moment he got up to the moment he put his head on the pillow, it was thoroughly enjoyable. He got up on his own, got dressed, came down for breakfast, ate, and got ready for baseball camp with plenty of time to spare. I was able to watch about half of camp today. He gave it a solid effort and played well. What really got me in the morning was this: On day one of camp, I gave him the "you're the older brother, so watch out for your little brother" speech. When camp broke, both the boys came right to me, and Caz and I started talking. Well, Coco hadn't seen me and started looking around, feeling lost. In mid sentence, Caz said, "Wait a sec, Dad.", walked over and got his little brother.

Later on, I was starting my home improvement project. I saw him walking in the back yard. He had heard two of the kids in Demi's daycare quarreling and went to mediate. He sounded like a grown up: "So what happened?", "Would you like it if someone took the ball from you?", "Please give the ball back." Problem solved and everyone was happy. Then with no prompting, he came over to help me out. And he was a big help. He put boards on the saw horsed to be but. He held the tape to help me measure. He held one end of the board while I put in screws on the other end. He held me for hours. So we took a break and I took both boys for a swim. After the swim I wanted to finish up. I had to borrow my Dad's pick up truck and Caz wanted to come with me. I didn't want to trouble my Dad and have him carry lumber with his bad knee, so I asked Caz to come. He helped me load plywood and roofing shingles, from the shelves, to the cart, to the truck, and from the truck to the work site. He was terrific.

After some well earned dinner, it was off to baseball. He tried really hard. Concentrated on the things we had talked about. After, he sprinted from the car, to the shower and got ready for bed. Just a fantastic, all around day. The kind of day that Fatherhood is all about.