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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Annals of parenthood: Eclipse edition

Waking up your kids at 4:30 a.m.: Free.
Watching the lunar eclipse with them before shuffling them back to bed: Priceless.

So I'm apparently a bad dad because I woke the munchkins up in the middle of the night so they could see the lunar eclipse. Make that two of our kids, as our daughter quite clearly did not want to be moved. But the boys trundled out front and saw the spectacle with me.

The wakeup call cut into their sleep and made for some additional grumpiness around the breakfast table. But I think they're glad they made the short trip with me. Somehow, I hope they remember that life's made up of the small moments that you strive to hold onto. Because simply letting them slip by unnoticed seems like a wasted opportunity.

Your turn: Holding onto the small moments. Please discuss.

10 comments:

  1. there are far more small moments than we often see..

    the other day, or maybe it was two years ago?

    we tend to get so wrapped up in the fast moving world...

    my wife and dughter made cookies last week...

    for a couple hours you would not know that one of them was 16 and one was a 16 yr old's mom (ageless beauty, my wife...i really do not know how old she is..or will not admit to it...)
    that was my most priceless momment recently..

    Bruce
    bruce johnson jadip
    evilbruce
    stupid stuff i see and hear
    Bruce’s guy book
    the guy book

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  2. We tried to watch... from the warmth of the hot tub... and did well with the bright full moon for a while... but... just as the time came to begin the first stages of the eclipse, the low hanging clouds rolled in and alas, all was for naught.

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  3. BTW.. When Nyssa was in elementary school, I did get her up in the middle of the night to go out into the cold and watch the Geminids meteor shower. We laid on the driveway in sleeping bags and watched for about an hour and saw an amazing display. So, yes, get them up... it's worth a bit of grumpiness!

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  4. There's no doubt in my mind that they will remember this moment of grumpiness with much laughter in the years ahead, Carmi! And they will think this was so cool!! :)

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  5. Not at all a bad dad.

    Of course, I did the same thing with my seven year old daughter.

    She loved it, and talked about it all day long today. I think it was worth it! (even though we had a bit of grumpiness at our house this morning too)

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  6. I missed it. :( but your moment rocks :)

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  7. Seems like the small moments which end up being big moments are often met w/some grumpiness... all 3 of my kids were born at the wee hours.. that is after going thru night labor always starting around 9 pm...
    the earthquake we had was at 4:30am that changed all of us...

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  8. Two summers ago my daughter and I camped out on the back deck to watch the meteor shower. She has such sharp eyes, she saw far more than I but it was so worth the loss of sleep. She was 15 at the time and still recalls fondly the night we spent on the deck.

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  9. Not bad parenting at all, I wish I had stayed up to see it though my 15 year old tried to no avail. He passed out right before. It is something they won't get to experience all too often, so be happy they got to experience it with Dad.
    Happy Holidays to you and your family!

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  10. I remember when I was young sitting out in the freezing cold just to watch a lunar eclipse. Many layers of clothes' lots of cups of tea and the cat that had decided to live in our shed on my knee. I watched the shadow slowly fall across the moon and pondered why it turned orange. An event well worth cold toes.

    My neighbours decide to take the cat in not long after just before I decide that I was going to give this cat some comfort of a house. Darn the people down the street who abandoned the poor thing but thats another story.

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