Allan Olson: Personal ME
Personal Me
This is the real personal me, I've been married for five years and my wife and I have a very entertaining and comical two year old son. Every day is a challenge with a two year old.
The biggest challenge is trying to keep him out of stuff that yesterday you were sure was out of his reach. The other challenge I have is homework my son seems to have this notion in his head that it is my job to spend all my attention on him and tries to bother me as much as possible while I'm doing my homework. So this forces me to try and beat him out of bed in the mornings and stay up later then him at night which leaves a very tired dad by the end of the week. Oh did I mention I like my sleep, so yes, this too, is a little challenging.
However, as much as I might complain about the challenge in getting my homework done during the day I wouldn't trade those times watching my son playing and trying (usually successful) to distract me from whatever I'm doing. The learning and growing stages are the best part of a child's life and I plan to enjoy it even though I'm up to my neck in homework on a weekly basis.
My son loves to be outside just as much as I do so we try to go out and play as often as we can. Usually we will go out and shovel snow after a fresh snowfall. Oh I forgot to mention the most challenging part. This is getting an active two year old dressed from the diaper to the last piece of appropriate winter clothing. It is not an easy task it can take as much as 30 minutes to get him completely dressed, by the time this is done dad is ready to stay in because I'm worn out. Although when his face lights up as we go out to play in the snow I realize that there is no way I'm going to convince this little boy that it's time to take the outdoor clothes off before we have even stepped foot outside.
Also my main job at home is dishes, mainly because my wife hates doing them even more then I do. I will usually try and do them in the morning while my wife is working. It has since become my son's tradition to help his dad by pushing a chair up to the kitchen sink and taking the dirty dishes and try to wash them on the counter by pouring water on them while I'm trying to do the dishes in my sink and yet keep him from making too big a mess in the kitchen. Did I happen to mention that this is also a little challenging?
Hopefully by the end of the day my son is more tired then I and he will let me read a few chapters of my homework and talk to his mother for a few kid free minutes. Even though raising a child, going to school and keeping a job gets a little challenging some days I wouldn't trade it for anything this world has to offer no matter how challenging school or parenting gets.
