Daddy Allstars

All parents already know the joys of sleepless nights and having their bed invaded and transformed into a family bed. 

My son will be 4 years old in March. My wife and I were very excited when we were able to get him to get up in the middle of the night to use the washroom instead of wetting the bed.

I am proud of him every time I hear those tiny steps. Often I observe him sleepwalk to the washroom, handle his business and walk back to his room. I am always amazed with what this 3 year old can do.  But lately this feat has backfired. Now instead of walking back to his room, he climbs in our bed and makes himself at home.

If I am not too tired I walk him back to his room and lay with him for a few minutes. Once he is asleep I go back in my bed. Well at least thats how I would like it too happen. Half the time I fall asleep in his bed only to been woken up a couple of hours later by the my daughter calling me from her crib.

This girl already has me wrapped around her tiny fingers. At 20 months old, she already knows that in the middle of the night don’t bother calling mommy. Call daddy. He is a sucker, her will wake up and get me milk at 2 am. (This is not a shot at mommy, I am a super light sleeper and hear everything at night. YAY ME !! )

After her milk she is back asleep and I am back in my bed. An hour later you already know the deal. The boy is back claiming his place in our bed. I admire his persistence and I let  him stay.

4 AM. She is up from her milk coma and wants to cuddle and chants my name again. I know what I’m suppose to do, we have done it before, let her cry she will soon be asleep. But I am too tired to care. I take her from her crib and go sleep in the boys bed with her. She happily cuddles and is back asleep in minutes . I look at the clock and think great “two hours to breakfast”.  If you are following my son is in my bed with mom and I am in his bed with his sister. That’s how most nights have been for a while.

Now I know this can all be fixed with two weeks of letting them cry and we will soon get our bed back and some kind of decent sleep routine. But honestly I like this routine.

One day they won’t want anything to do with me. They will think I am corny and annoying and want me out of their rooms. So I figure I might as well get it while I can. Sleep be damned.

Sorry babe you are right they will be in our bed until their teens and I am OK with that.

Pierre-Richard Ducasse

(Originally published on November 30 2017)

 

A couple of months ago a friend of mine suggested I start a dad blog. She felt that there are not enough fathers blogging and even less representation from black fathers.  The idea seemed interesting and I went home excited. A few weeks went by and of course I did nothing. While I felt that I should give it a shot, I kept coming up with every reason in the world not to do this. I.e.: why would I want to share my life and my kids? why would someone even read this? my life is not that interesting, I cannot write (really I suck), anything you can think of I probably thought of it.

This morning I woke up and thought just do it. See how it goes, you will never know until you try right? and if you don’t like it you can delete it. It’s not like the Internet is forever right ?

So after reading a few “how to start a blog for newbies” articles. I now have a blog.

And who am I? you are probably thinking. (Actually at this point probably only my friends are reading this but whatever entertain me)

My name is Pierre-Richard (or Pierre for short unless you speak French and wont butcher it). I am 34 years old, I am married to an awesome woman that tolerates all my nonsense. I have 2 kids, a 3 and half year old boy and a 1 and half year old girl. I live in Toronto. I like sports, food, cars etc. all the typical things that a child my age likes. But enough about me for now.

About this blog, I am not yet sure what I want out of it and what it will become. So if you are reading this first thank you and second be patient, give me a chance and also be nice (pretty please). So yeah that’s all I have right now. I felt that I needed to take the first step if this was ever going to get off the ground. So that’s it first step taken !!

Good Night

Pierre-Richard D.

(Originally publish on November 2 2017)