It Takes A Village...

(Papa, Jamie's Dad)

How do people raise kids without a super dad like Jamie? Sometimes I wonder how I make it through the day on my own (not even factoring in the kids.) And some days I don't make it through on my own.

Take today for instance. I am working on my second week at a new job. I will eventually work from home, but for a little while longer I still have my eighteen mile commute which takes anywhere from thirty five minutes to an hour. This morning it was a little over an hour.

(Nana, my mom)

Usually my mother is down during the week to help watch the baby, but this week we have Jamie's dad and his grandmother. Papa has given me the gift of a less stressful morning. Maddox is a night owl which means he does not want to get up in the mornings. If we can get him into bed by eight, he's manageable the next morning. One minute past eight and it's a whole other story.

"I didn't get enough sweep," he says with his adorable inability to pronounce the letter "L." Everything I ask him to do after that is a whiny protest, and then he just sits on the couch anyway with his eyes closed as if I hadn't said a word.

With Papa mornings are different. He somehow turns every protest into a giggle, every whine into a fun game which ends in Maddox fully dressed and standing at the door with his backpack on. And it doesn't end there. Papa takes Maddox to school too. He lets Maddox watch their progress on the navigation system's map, even though school is a mile and a half away.

And even with all the happiness he has already brought to my home, this morning Papa came to my rescue yet again. When I got to work and stepped out of the car I realized I had forgotten my computer. (Hey, don't laugh. I told you this is only my second week. Plus I had a long commute, so cut me some slack.)

Since I had already been in the car an hour, I couldn't stand the thought of getting back in the car only to do it all over again. Papa brought my computer, no questions asked. Well, he asked for the address, but no questions after that one.

Sometimes I wonder how Jamie came to be a super dad, but I never wonder long. He learned by example. We truly wouldn't have made it through the transition from one kid to two without the help of Nana, Grandaddy, Grandmother, Papa, and Mimi. I know we don't say it often enough, so I'm writing it here in my blog for all to see. THANK YOU!!!

(Grandmother, Jamie's grandmother)

(Mimi, Jamie's mom)

(Grandaddy, my dad)