 It’s now nearly 2 weeks since we returned home from California. I’m still looking for a groove, a structured niche of time that I can use to write/blog and explore some social media platforms and interactions. The daytime is not really an option, nor should it be. This is kid family time for the most part with the exception of small lulls.
Over the last couple of days I’ve found some time to play around with iWeb, the Mac web application. The results can be viewed at 180 Days of Magic. It will be a mixture of the personal supplemented with information from other sources on parental leave with an emphasis, if possible on fathers’ perspectives.
We briefly resuscitated our house hunting this week. Noah-David is always on the look out for toys when we go for viewings. He’s really good at understanding that they don’t belong to him and is generally pretty easy to contain.
We saw 4 houses in a couple of days. Three of them had distinct defining characteristics. One is rustic pastoral with over an acre of land, multiple buildings and a llama (not for sale). Another is a disaster area with garbage on the floor, standing pools of water in the basement being used as a play area and just a general aura of neglect (can’t judge a book by its cover – this cover was in good shape).The third is a spacious home with lots of natural light, a view of rolling hills and cathedral ceilings (turns out we came on the scene too late).
The viewings at our house continue though at a greatly reduced frequency. Our realtor tells us that she had only one viewing up to Wednesday of this week for all of her listings. We had one yesterday, a return visit by a couple of brothers who are ‘flippers’. The weekend is coming up and viewing activity should pick up. There is of course the associated inconvenience of getting the kids ready for a quickly field trip and tidying up the house on short notice.
The groove is going great with the kids. This is sustained time that I’ve never had with these little sproglets before. It’s not all family values and disneyesque perfection. In addition to the laughter, the playing and the wonder, there are the shitty diapers, mini-tantrums and whining. On balance, it’s an incredible time that we’re spending together. It’s priceless, invaluable. We are fortunate that we’re in a financial situation that we are able do this. As for professional challenges and opportunities – they can wait.
Mélanie has found time to read a couple of books within the last 2 to 3 weeks. She’s literally ecstatic. I’m hoping that she’ll continue to rediscover old pleasures that she had to set aside temporarily to care for the babies full time.
It’s wonderful weather today – great for blowing bubbles, getting the deck furniture out and general lollygagging.
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