Just what I needed.

This is a blog about this week and what it means to me. I hope that when my Girls are older that they will appreciate what I am about to write.

These past several weeks I have been given a great opportunity. I have been lucky enough to have been able to spend 12 weeks with my 2 daughters Hanisi and Milly and my beautiful wife, Mariah. Having received a redundancy pay out from work has meant that I have had the ability to stay at home with them and enjoy some amazing experiences with them.

I recall when I was working as a Retail Manager, that there were some days when I would not see Milly for up to two days. and If I did see her it was only for a few moments when she was awake through the night. I am sure that through a normal working week I would see the kids for maybe 10 hrs over the course of a 5 day week. These 10 hours would have either been during the early morning rush to get to work on time. Or in the evenings when they were at their worst due to tiredness. Not the best way to watch your children grow up, but it's the way it is for a most and will be for me again one day. I remember one morning looking at Milly and thinking, wow you have grown over night. When it was just the fact that I had not taken the time to really look at her and reflect on her development.

Then there is Mariah and I. Our time spent together was again at the end of the day, when our fuses were so close to the primer sometimes it was best just to do your own thing. It has been so nice to be with her again and refresh my memory as to what it was like when we first got married and we were always close at hand. I Know Mariah has enjoyed sneaking the extra cuddle here and there. We have talked more these past weeks than we have in the past couple of years I reckon.

If there is one thing that I regret the most about the past 12 weeks, it is that the last couple of weeks that I have appreciated the most. I have felt the closest to Mariah this week and I feel In love with her again. I have been stopping what I have been doing and listening to what the kids have to say. Hanisi loves to share her day with me. When ever they go somewhere and I can't go, she comes home and tells me all about it. With Milly you have to ask what happened then wait for a "Yeah" or a "No." Even then she gets it a bit mixed up.
 

"What are you doing Milly?"
"Sumpin"

"Where are you going today Milly?"
"Shop!"

"Love you Milly!"
"Lub Oooh.. Daddy"

"Hanisi, what would you like to do today?"
"Nisi wanna ride a Gootta!"
"Nisi wanna ride my Bike"

"Hanisi don't ride you bike on the road." 
"I not will"

I have seen the girls do some memorable things. Hanisi learned to ride a bike, and a scooter. Her toilet training is spot on. She has not had an accident in a long time.. well she did the other day, but she was not well and not really with it. She had her first hair cut. She rode a horse, and learned how to use a mouse on a computer and can now restart her own Peppa Pig shows. 

My first week home I helped Milly do one of her first wees on the potty, taught her to say I love you, taken her on her first outing without Mummy. We have been to the library together, for walks together and gone to the shop. She also had a hair cut. which I must say is similar to one that Mariah had when she was a little girl.

Milly's vocabulary is growing fast. She can just about get the alphabet, the L,M.N,O.P sounds a bit jumbled. She is using more and more words everyday and understanding what they mean.

There are so many more things. Most of these have just been in the last month. If I could do one thing different, I wish I had kept a journal of the things that we have done together. This Blog thing is great. I love it. It is a way to get me to keep track of memorable occasions.

I love being a Dad. It is not always easy, and I don't always make the best Dad in the world. The great thing about children is that they forgive and forget so easily. Where we as adults tend to hold on to things for a lot longer.

This past week I have been given a speaking assignment for Church this coming Sunday. I don't mind giving, what we call. talks. It is always an opportunity to learn something new and discover things about yourself that are good and things that could possibly need refining, or changing completely.

The topic I was given was about how doubt can sometimes takeover our lives, and how spiritual "special" experiences can be used to overcome doubt and build us. This gave me cause to reflect on some spiritual experiences in my life and how they have caused me to be who I am today. Had I remained the person that I was 10 years or so ago, I would not be married to Mariah. I would not have a Hanisi or a Milly. I would probably not live where I live. I would not even know what the name Hanisi meant.

I am a lucky guy. I know it and I am grateful for what I have and who I have. What a great 12 weeks it has been. I am so luck to have had such a long time to just be a Dad and a Husband, not a boss or an employee or student, just me.

And that is about that. :) 

Better help Mariah so that we can have a relaxing night together in front of the fire. :)