Adventure's In Fatherhood

Being a father has got to be the best job in the world. I mean, don’t get me wrong here. I love being a 9-1-1 professional and all but being a dad? It’s awesome! I have three children and yes I said it, THREE children. If you know my story with my eldest son then you know what’s up and I will always be his dad. There are many adventures that come with being a father and hell, being a parent in general. In this post I want to share some stories with you that makes fatherhood a blast for me. I have always enjoyed designing different things. There is something about sitting down and zoning on a project that appeals to me. Well my son Logan is the same way in that sense. He has always loved Lego’s and building blocks and when he builds something he zones in and creates the coolest things. For example there was a time when he was in his room building and he yelled for me. I went into his room to see what was up and he asked me if I could help him figure out how to make some blocks stand. I tried a couple times and told him it couldn’t be done. I saw the wheels turning in his head and he told me he was going to figure it out. Now, Logan was around five or six years old at the time and I figure he was going to remain stuck until he yelled for me again.

“I GOT IT, I GOT IT!”

I looked down and asked what it was and he replied with, “It’s a suspension bridge dad.” The boy built a suspension bridge out of building blocks. It was amazing! It made me proud to see that he didn’t give up. He has even built stuff from Star Wars just by looking at the box. He later modifies it to his liking but wow! Logan you are an amazing boy and I love you very much.

Now…have you ever heard the saying, “She has you wrapped around her little finger?” Well when I was told that this would happen to me when my daughter Lola was born I thought I would be able to stay strong and bypass it but I was wrong. Ever since she was born I have been wrapped around her little finger. She is clever, funny, and gets into everything. She’s one and a half and repeats everything we say. I find this to be awesome but when I slip up she catches it. For example, I have a bad habit of saying, “damn it.” So one time I said it after dropping something in the kitchen and Lola happened to be right there. I had hoped that she didn’t hear me but sure enough she did.

“Damn it!”

Yep she yelled it in her cute little baby girl voice and I chuckled but quickly told her not to say that. She looked confused and said it again as if testing it out. I told her again to stop and she smiled and walked off. I think I’m going to be in trouble later on with her but I love her to death.

As I mentioned above I have three children. My eldest is 13 and although we have not interacted we have had some run-ins. One of those run-ins was downtown Zeeland while I was recording some b-roll for a project I was working on. While recording we ended up face-to-face. We stared at each other for a moment before turning away. I wanted to say hi but I was following his mom’s wishes so I let it go. Believe me when I say it killed me inside to not say anything. As I walked away I looked back a few times and I noticed that he continued to watch me. Did you recognize me Richie? As time has gone on there have been more random run-ins and most recently my family and I were at one of the Tulip Time Festival parades and saw him marching in band. It was crazy to see him marching because I used to be in the band and I marched as well. I can’t explain how good it felt to see him doing that and Logan was excited as well.

I’m proud of my children and very happy to be their father. There is always an adventure that comes from them and I thank the good lord every day for allowing me the awesome privilege of being a father. I love you very much and although I am going to be out of town for father’s day the best gift is having all of you.